These Old Bones
by The Bone Snatcher
Summary: To Mac & his team this recent string of murders seem like any other homicide until the day a witness for N.C.I.S turns up dead in New York. With the bodies piling up Mac & Gibbs must race against time to stop the Skeleton Killer before he can strike again
1. Preview

_**Authors Note:**__ This story is a crossover between the shows CSI: New York and the original N.C.I.S~! This first "Chapter" here is a preview of future events, the next page is the actual FIRST chapter~!_****

New York City, 7:43am

_'SPLASH'_

The sound of his body hitting the water as he dove in echoed through the empty space like thunder over an open field. It wasn't uncommon for the pool to be empty at this time of day and Mac wasn't about to let this solitude go to waste. He quickly and effortlessly glided under the water's surface before breaking the glassy top and swimming to the other side, pulling himself to the edge of the pool and resting his head on his forearms. The quite sounds of the rec. center were a welcome calm compared to the sounds he'd been hearing all week.

The thought of his latest case made his mind wander and he closed his eyes as he retraced the evidence in his head. He started with the initial crime scenes, then the victims and finally to the suspects and the DVDs being sent directly to his lab.

"There has to be something I'm missing..." He muttered to himself. Before he could come to any conclusions, Mac's train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of a couple entering the pool. "So much for solitude." Just as he was about to push off the wall the all too familiar sound of his ringtone made him turn his head towards his cell phone laying on the bench just under the windows to his left. Quickly and without hesitation Mac pulled himself out of the water and waltzed over to his belongs, grabbing his towel to wipe his hands off before answering his phone. "Taylor."

"Mac, it's Don. Gotta minute?" It was Detective Flack. Shifting his weight Mac threw his towel over his shoulder before replying.

"Sure, what do you need Don?"

"Gotta homicide in Midtown. Looks like our bone guy struck again..."

"Where in Midtown?"

"The Helmsley Hotel, I'll have one of my guys waiting outside to escort you up."

"Alright, I'm on way." That said, Mac hung up, grabbed his things and left for the scene.

By the time he got to The Helmsley the hotel was already sectioned off with yellow crime scene tape and a rather large crowd had gathered out of curiosity at the growing number of officers standing about the entrance and lobby.

"Detective Taylor." One of the officers near the door motioned to Mac who immediately recognized the officer as one of Detective Flacks men. He nodded and followed the officer up to the suite where the scene was waiting to be processed, thanking the man as he walked into the room.

"What did I miss?" Flack turned around to the sound of Mac's voice behind him with a frustrated expression on his face.

"A lota nonsense. A whole floor full of people and not one of them heard anything. Not last night and not this morning. In fact they say they haven't heard anything from this room the whole time our vic's been checked in here which is bogus if you ask me..." Flack said flipping through his note pad.

"Who's our vic?" Mac asked setting his kit down and pulling out his latex gloves to start his walk through.

"His name's James Schwepper, 27 year old male, Caucasian. Apparently he was down here from Washington D.C to visit a friend."

"Do we know where the friend is?"

"Nah, gotta lead though. Neighbour says they saw a guy here with the vic two nights ago, I'm having my guys pull the surveillance footage. Should have it at the lab in a little while."

"Thanks Don."

"No problem Mac." As the conversation came to a close, Don walked out of the room to leave Mac to his work. Today was going to be a long day...

**Washington D.C., 7:56am – N.C.I.S Headquarters**

"I still don't get it, nor do I think I want to get it..." Ziva said with a rather displeased look on her face. Tony merely leaned back in his chair with a smug look.

"It's a guy thing Ziva, I wouldn't expect you to understand it..." He grinned at her from his desk as he kicked his feet upon the top, which only seemed to annoy Ziva even more.

"I hope that grin means you've got something for me DiNozzo." Gibbs quipped as he strolled past Tony's desk to his own. DiNozzo quickly threw his feet off his desk and sat up straight.

"Uhh not yet boss. Still can't get a hold of our witness, I'm working on the other leads." He replied.

"Well, get going. We have 24 hours to find him. Let's just hope we find him in one piece." Gibbs replied seating himself at his desk before looking to Tim. "McGee, phone records?"

"According to our witnesses phone records he made a call to New York three days prior to his disappearance and again approximately 12 hours prior to his disappearance." Tim was quick to reply.

"Where was the last call made?"

"Uhh, let me see..." Tim was quiet for a moment. "Oh..."

"Oh what?"

"The last call he made to New York was FROM New York..."

"Looks like he went anyway..." Tony commented. "What d'you want to do boss?"

"DiNozzo, get on the phone with NYPD and see if they know anything, McGee, trace his last call I want an exact location. Ziva, check his list of contacts and see if any of the numbers match the last call made from his phone. If he's in New York, we need to find him before anyone else does."

**The Helmsley Hotel, 9:28am – New York City**

"So you think this is our Skeleton Killer again?" Danny more stated then asked as he bagged the victims' hands tightly.

"It's too early to say. But the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction..." Mac replied from the other side of the room as he bagged another fibre. "So far I'm not seeing a connection between our latest victim and the first three. If this is our guy, then why would he suddenly shift his course and go back to an old habit?"

"This guy does like to keep us guessing. Maybe he's trying to throw us off."

"Or maybe he's trying to tell us something..." Before Mac could finish his phone started to ring. He reached in his pocket and pulled it out looking at the number to see who it was. "That's odd..."

"What's up?"

"Why is a private number from Washington D.C calling me?"

"A private number, from Washington? Maybe it's connected to the case? I mean, the vic IS from Washington." Danny shrugged and stopped what he was doing for a moment as Mac answered the call.

"Detective Taylor."

"Detective Taylor, hi. This is Special Agent Tony DiNozzo I'm with N.C.I.S. Do you have a minute?" DiNozzo asked.

"Not at the moment, I'm in the middle of processing a crime scene. What does N.C.I.S need with the NYPD?" Mac replied a little put off.

"We have a witness under protective custody that was last seen in New York at approximately 5:43am and we were hoping that the NYPD might know something about his whereabouts."

"Have you tried contacting him or any agents that may have been escorting him?"

"That's the problem Detective. We've been trying to contact him and the agents with him for the past 72 hours with no luck. We're running out of time." Mac was silent for a moment trying to assess the new situation. He looked to the floor momentarily, and then his eyes slowly trailed over to Danny and finally the victim, James Schwepper, on the floor. "Detective Taylor?"

"Can you give me a description of your witness?"

"Uhh, sure. He's about 5'8", Caucasian, slim build, brown eyes, wavy dark brown hair." Mac moved his phone away from his mouth and motioned to Danny to get his attention.

"What colour are the victims eyes?"

"Uhh, lemme see here." Danny got up and paced around the vic to get a good look at his eyes. "Looks like brown to me boss. Why?"

"I'll tell you in a moment. Agent DiNozzo, could you tell me the name of your witness?" Mac asked.

"I'm not really at liberty to say."

"Is his name James Schwepper per chance?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Agent DiNozzo?"

"Yes. How did you..?" DiNozzo was cut off before he could finish.

"I think I know where your witness is."

"Great! So uhh, could you tell me where he is?"

"He's laying face down in a pool of his own blood in a suite at the Helmsley Hotel here in New York..."


	2. Part 1

_**Authors Note:**__ This is the first chapter to a crossover story between the shows CSI: New York and the original N.C.I.S~!_****

2:43am – The Ramada Bronx Hotel

The rain hammered against the glass like a thousand fists beating the walls of his suite. He knew that man was out there, he could feel it, feel HIM out there watching, waiting. In a panic the young man threw the curtains closed, grabbed the nearest chair and rammed it against the door barricading him in the room.

"Ok, ok, just... Stay calm Mark, stay calm." He told himself as he paced back and forth in front of the bed. "He can't get in, he can't get in. Just go to sleep, go to the cops when you wake and this'll all be over.." Satisfied with his encouragement, Mark sat down on the foot of the bed and stared at the floor. His mind raced with the events that lead him to this moment, this suite in the Ramada Bronx Hotel.

It started back on the streets; he was on his way home when an eerie feeling crept over him. He quickened his pace and glanced over his shoulder, the feeling of being followed sneaking up on the eerie feeling already settled over his being. As if to confirm his fear, a tall man in a black hood stood on the corner he had just passed a few feet back making Mark tighten his coat around his torso and quicken his pace even more.

The hooded man however was more interested in spooking Mark into the alley just ahead, and started at a quickened walk after him. Mark knew something was wrong when he looked back and saw the hooded man in hot pursuit. In a panic he turned and dashed down the alley, just as the man had intended on him doing.

"It's nothing, it's nothing! He's not following you, he didn't follow you here!" Mark shouted to himself.

"Is everything OK in here?" The sudden sound of the house keeping woman's voice and the thud as she moved the chair out of her way made Mark jump. "Oh, I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. I heard the chair bang against the door and I wanted to make sure you were alright. Are you hurt?."

"Oh, no no. I'm fine thank you..."

"Oh good. Did you need anything at all while I'm here?"

"No thank you..." He hung his head to the floor feeling rather foolish now for letting himself get so worked up over some bigot in a black hood chasing him into an alley. "Actually." He spoke up feeling a little better now. "You wouldn't happen to have a bar in here would you?" At first the silence from the door made Mark wonder if the house keeper hadn't heard him so he tried again a little louder. "Did, you hear me mi...?" As he turned his head to the door, the young man's heart skipped a beat and the same terrified feeling from the alley washed over him again.

"H-help..." The house keeper muttered under the pressure of the small blade being held to her throat. Attached to the blade was the black hooded man from the street, his cold brown eyes peering through the eyeholes of his mask.

"Oh my God... Oh my God..." Mark stumbled off the bed and crawled backwards across the floor shaking as the man slowly walked into the room, pushing the house keeper out and locking the door. "Please, please no. Please don't do this!" The man paused as Mark pleaded with him for his life, turning his head ever so slightly making a dark shadow fall on his face. "Please, I'll give you whatever you want!"

"Whatever I want?" The masked man replied in a hoarse voice.

"Yes whatever you want! Money, my watch, my credit cards. ANYTHING! Just please, don't kill me!"

"Whatever** I** want." The man repeated as he strolled closer to Mark, backing him right into the wall.

"Yes, just tell me what it is and you can have it!" The man was silent for a moment as he leaned down and looked Mark right in the eyes.

"I want..." He paused giving the young man one last shred of hope that he may in fact get out of here alive. Then, he ripped it out from under him with two little words. "Your skull..." The first clap of thunder swallowed the bone chilling sounds of Mark's agonized cries as his killer took exactly what he wanted from him, leaving a bloody mess behind in the small suite in the Ramada Bronx Hotel as he stalked off to clean his prize.

**7:12am – New York City Crime Lab**

It wasn't unusual for Detective Taylor to be in the lab by this time of day. In fact, he'd hardly been home since last Monday and today was going to be no exception. He slowly pulled his black Chevy Avalanche into his parking spot in the rooftop garage, bringing the vehicle to a halt between the parallel white lines. He reached into the backseat and pulled his bag out; opening it momentarily to make sure he hadn't forgotten any of the case files he'd brought home with him. Once he was sure he had everything he needed Mac opened the car door and headed down to the lab.

Almost the moment he stepped off the elevator Adam, the labs technician, was all over him.

"Mac, I have something to tell you. I know I shouldn't have looked but I thought that since I was already in your office dropping off a report it wouldn't be as bad that I..." Adam was cut off before he could finish.

"Is there a point to this Adam?" Mac asked a little irritated with Adams anxiety.

"Umm, yeah. You have a uhh. A package sitting on your desk, doesn't say who sent it. Just says 'To be delivered to the desk of Detective Mac Taylor' on the front."

"And did you open this package?"

"No, I just."

"Just what Adam?"

"You know I.. Just felt it out." Adam put his hands on his hips and looked to Mac's office silently. "I'll stop... Talking now."

"Don't you have work to be doing?"

"Right." Adam quickly and awkwardly walked off back to his post leaving Mac to do his work. Shaking his head slightly Detective Taylor waltzed over to his office and pushed the glass door open glancing at the manila envelope sitting on his desk as he set his bag and coat aside. As he approached the desk the first thing he did was pull the envelope closer to him to get a better look at it. Just as Adam had said, there written in thick black marker on the front of the package was 'To be delivered to the desk of Detective Mac Taylor'. Finding it a little odd that there was no address on the front Mac flipped it over, checking it out on all sides before he carefully tore open on end of the package and peeked inside.

Now he was a little curious. The package was almost empty, save for a single thin disc with something written in red on the front cover. Slowly Mac tipped the envelope upside down on his desk letting the disc slide out with a light clack on the glass top. As he set the envelope to the side he studied the red letters reading 'Play Me' on the front for a moment, the hand writing not ringing any bells but it wasn't so much the hand writing that concerned him now as much as what it was written with.

He quickly reached into his pocket, thankful for putting a pair of latex gloves in his coat before leaving his apartment today and carefully picked up the case, opening it and pulling out the paper the words had been painted on. Taking a closer look at it now Mac knew that his instincts were right, the words on the cover of this DVD case were painted on with blood, and it was still fresh.

"This was done recently..." He muttered and grabbed the DVD, quickly making his way down to Adams workstation. "Adam." The sound of Mac's voice startled Adam and he turned around ready to be scolded for something.

"Yeah boss..?" He replied sheepishly.

"I need you to find out what's on this DVD." Mac handed Adam the DVD from the package.

"OK, I'll get right on it. What are we doing with that?" Adam pointed to the paper in Mac's hand.

"I need to test this for blood and prints. Just focus on the DVD and call me when you get something." Mac didn't even wait for Adam to respond before walking off to take care of the paper. If this was in fact blood he had to find out what it came from and more importantly, who had painted it on the cover and dropped it off at his lab in the first place.


	3. Part 2

"Well there's no prints. Whoever did this made sure of that. But you were right Mac. That's definitely blood." Danny sighed as he looked over the paper in his hand.

"Is it human?" Mac inquired even though he was sure he already knew the answer.

"Yep, blood's from an unknown male. There were no hits in CODIS, go figure..."

"I may know whose blood that is boss..." Mac and Danny both turned to face the frantic lab technician standing in the doorway. "You need to see what's on that DVD Mac."

"Show me." Quickly Mac and Danny both followed Adam back to the audio/visual part of the lab.

"Now, the first ten minutes of the DVD was just a lot of random clips of the same guy. I assume it was like a recon someone was doing. It shows him at various restaurants, at malls with various people."

"Adam." Adam turned to look at his boss, realizing by the look on his face that he wasn't interested in what he was saying. "What did you NEED me to see?"

"Right. Well after skimming through the first ten minutes." Adam quickly fast forwarded through the first half of the DVD bringing it to the more important scenes. "The disc goes blank for about five minutes but when I was about to turn it off I saw this..." He grabbed a remote and aimed it at the large screen on the wall bringing the image up on the screen.

At first, the screen was rather dim. To Mac, Danny and Adam it looked like the camera had been hidden in something like someone's coat. It wasn't until the camera started to "Chase" the man from the previous scenes that they knew something was a miss. First down the road, then into an alley and finally into the Ramada Bronx hotel where the camera stopped and waited.

"This is in The Bronx..." Danny stated aloud. The three of them all watched in silence as the camera finally entered the lobby of the hotel, slipping past the man at the desk and ducking behind the corner watching as the house maid opened the door to one of the suites. Finally the camera glided down the hall until it came up behind the woman, then it slowly corned the man in the dark room.

"Oh my God... Oh my God..." The young man stumbled off the bed and back up across the floor away from the camera. "Please, please no. Please don't do this!" The camera paused as if to toy with the pleading man shaking on the floor in terror. "Please, I'll give you whatever you want!"

"Whatever I want?" A hoarse voice boomed through the speakers in the lab.

"Yes whatever you want! Money, my watch, my credit cards. ANYTHING! Just please, don't kill me!"

"Whatever **I** want." The man behind the camera repeated forcefully as he strolled closer to the younger man, backing him right into the wall.

"Yes, just tell me what it is and you can have it!" The man behind the camera was silent for a moment as he leaned down; bringing the young man's face right into the camera.

"I want..." There was a slight pause, and then the hoarse voice continued. "Your skull..." A clap of thunder swallowed the man's first agonized cries as his killer took a small blade and punctured his neck causing the young man to bleed out profusely. The man behind the camera forcibly held him down as he bled out on the floor until finally the body stopped moving.

For a moment, the camera backed up giving Mac, Danny and Adam a good view of what had happened to the young man on the floor. But just as quickly as the camera backed away, the camera was torn off and the image was lost. The three men stood there silent and motionless for no more than a few minutes before Mac quickly pulled out his phone and started dialling numbers.

"Danny, call Jo and have her meet us at the Ramada Bronx hotel. Adam, see if you can clean up the images on that DVD I want our vics face run through the system, see if we can't get a hit. We need to find out who did this."

"On it boss." Adam swiftly turned back to his station and immediately started cleaning up the images as best he could.

"I'll get right on it Mac." Danny quickly pulled out his phone and took off down the hall after Mac and up to the rooftop garage. "Jo, this is Danny. We need you at the Ramada Bronx hotel ASAP!" Having left his message he hung up his phone and flung it on the dash of his car, pulling out right behind Detective Taylor.

"Flack, I need you at the Ramada Bronx hotel we have a possible homicide." Mac half shouted as he tore down the streets of New York.

"I'm on my way." Flack confirmed and the two hung up, leaving nothing but the sounds of the sirens echoing through the streets as they raced to the scene.

**11:34am – Washington D.C, N.C.I.S Safe House**

"Hi you've reached Matt, I'm not able to take your call right now but leave a message and I'll get back to you." The sound of the beep echoed through the line signalling the recording had started.

"Hey Matt, its James. Listen I need to talk to you about something..." James paused mid sentence to collect his thoughts. "Look, I'm sorry about just running out on you like that but... See I've gotten myself into something bad man. Some real deep shit, the Navy's involved an everything..." Again James paused, bringing his hand to his face wiping away the sweet running down it. "Just... Tell Katie that I'm sorry I couldn't make it..." With his mind now drawing a blank, James hung up the phone.

"Mr. Schwepper. Everything OK in here?" A man poked his head in through the door, the sound of his voice making James turn his head.

"Yeah, everything's fine thanks... Just a little shaken up yea know?" The man nodded and stepped outside again leaving James alone in the room. "Man... What the hell have I gotten myself into now..."

**11:46am – The Ramada Bronx Hotel, New York City**

"Looks like he was bled out from the neck just like in the video." Mac stated as he turned the corpses head to get a better look, or rather, what was LEFT of his head.

"I think he was a little more than bled out Mac..." Don muttered from under his sleeve. "The man's skull is missing." He cringed a little as Detective Taylor stood up and walked around the mess left behind by the killer.

"Do we have an ID yet?" Mac asked never once taking his eyes off the victim.

"Yeah showed the picture Adam sent over to the staff. The guy at the desk said his name's Mark Quinlan. Looks like he was lookin for a place to hide."

"Only his safe house turned out to be his tomb." Mac commented looking at the blood soaked into the carpet.

"I think I found what our killer used to paint the words on the DVD case." Jo said from the door holding up an evidence bag with a bloody paintbrush in it.

"Great, let's get that back to the lab and check for prints." Mac replied. "Danny, our killer may have left something else behind. Check the entire perimeter for anything we may have missed and bring it back to the lab."

"You got it boss." Danny nodded and walked out of the room to check the rest of the hotel for any other evidence that may have been overlooked while Mac left for the morgue and Sid's findings during autopsy.


	4. Part 3

"That's not a good idea James. If these men are out there looking for you then a road trip to New York would only endanger you needlessly." Gibbs quipped at his witness. James was the only surviving witness in a homicide involving a Naval officer and his family and Gibbs wasn't about to let him jeopardize his life as well as this investigation simply because he wanted to reconnect. "It's safer for you to stay here in Washington."

"But Agent Gibbs..." James pleaded.

"James, you knew the sacrifices that needed to be made when you agreed to go into protective custody. If we let you go to New York and something happens to you there'd be a lot of problems." Tim added.

"Look, I know how bad it would be if something happened to me. I get that. I just need you to understand I HAVE to get New York. My friend's in a lot of trouble and he needs my help." James continued.

"Mr. Schwepper. I understand your concern for your friend, but you need to worry more about yourself right now. I promise you as soon as this investigation is over and you've testified in court, I'll see to it you're on the first bus to New York myself. Ok?" Gibbs put his hand on James's shoulder reassuringly hoping the young man would see the dangers of going to New York and stay put. Finally James nodded his head in defeat.

"Ok, I'll stick it out..."

**2:35pm – New York Crime Lab, Morgue**

"So what can you tell me about Mr. Quinlan here?" Mac inquired, looking over the corpse of Mark Quinlan lying on the cold table.

"Well, I can tell you the obvious. He's missing his skull." Sid replied pointing to the lack of a skull in Marks head.

"Can you tell me how that happened?"

"Well, whoever did this did so AFTER they bled him out through the carotid artery in his neck here." Sid turned the head slightly revealing the puncture wound on the left side of Mark's neck. "After he finished, he took a blade and cut open the back of his head then severed the skull from the spinal column giving him the room he needed to peel back his face and take his skull."

"Do we know what he used to severe his spine?"

"From the looks of things I'd say he used bone saw of sorts. Most likely a Gigli saw..."

"And what about the blade he used to cut open the back of his head?"

"A small thin blade, probably a pocket knife or something similar to it." Sid backed up from a the table a bit and looked over Mark's body. "You know, I've always wondered what people like this do with the pieces they take away with them. Sorta makes you wonder what they were thinking before they did it..." Sid stopped when he realized Mac was giving him that look again.

"I guess that's what Hawke's calls the Creepy Place?" Sid was awkwardly silent as Mac chuckled and walked away. "Thanks Sid."

"Yeah no problem Mac..."

"So what did Sid have to say about our guy?" Danny asked as soon as Mac walked in the room.

"Apparently whoever did this to him used a Gigli saw to cut out his skull right after he bled him out through the left carotid artery in his neck." Mac replied with a grave look on his face.

"Man that's sick. Who the hell cuts out a man's skull and takes it with him?"

"I'll tell yea who." Don said as he walked through the door of the staff room. "A skeleton."

"A skeleton?" Danny repeated almost positive he'd misheard his friend.

"Yeah, that's our house keepers' big story. A skeleton did it."

"So you found the house keeper?" Mac asked.

"Yeah. A couple of my guys found her hiding out in her apartment not far from the hotel. She's been goin on and on about this guy with a skeleton face in a black hood since we brought her in." Flack huffed, clearly tired of the house keepers story.

"I'd like to talk to her, is she still in custody?"

"She's waitin in the interrogation room for you as we speak Mac."

"Great. Danny, I want you to find out how Adam's doing with the surveillance footage from the hotel. Call me as soon as you find something."

"You got it." Danny replied as he waltzed off down the hall to Adam's workstation. "Adam, tell me you got something for me buddy."

"You know, I JUST might." Adam replied without taking his eyes off the big screen. "Take a look at this Danny. This is the footage from just outside Mark's room at the hotel." Danny shifted his weight and crossed his arms while Adam played the footage from the scene.

"Hey guys, what did I miss?" Danny turned his head to see Lindsay walk in the room.

"Aww nothing yet. Adam and I were just getting to the good part right Adam?" Danny replied looking back to the screen.

"You bet." Adam replied.

"Is this the footage from the hotel?" Lindsay asked.

"Yeah. We were lucky to find a camera just outside the vics room so we got a clear shot of the killer as he came and went." Danny pointed to the hooded figure as he shoved the house keeper to the side and closed Mark's door behind him. "Hey, skip forward to when he leaves the room."

"Alright gimme a sec..." Adam quickly sped through the time that past as the killer dealt with Mark in the room, stopping just as the figure opened the door again and glanced around the hall with an eerie slowness.

"There's our guy." Lindsay said with a hint of disgust.

"Lets hope he gives us a face to work with..." Danny added with the same tone of voice. As if the man on the screen heard Danny words he slowly turned his face to the camera and removed his hood revealing the grotesque mask beneath the black fabric. "Whoa... What the hell?"

"You better get on the phone with Mac Danny. He's gonna want to see this..."

**4:02pm – New York City Police Department 13th Precinct, Interrogation Room**

"I'm telling you, the man had a skeleton face. I swear to you I'm telling the truth!" The woman screamed.

"Ok, ok calm down ms..." Mac paused as the woman spoke again.

"Hay. Catherine Hay." Catherine leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed quite frustrated with the detectives.

"Ms. Hay." Mac sighed and sat himself down at the table. "Look Ms. Hay. I know you say you're convinced of what you saw. But is it possible you were just frightened b-..." Catherine cut Mac off before he could finish.

"Yes I was frightened. I was TERRIFIED for my life, but I know what I saw detective."

"Ok..." Just as Mac was about to continue his phone began to ring. Quietly he reached into his pocket and pulled it out looking at the screen to see who was calling before answering it. "Taylor."

"Mac." Danny's voiced carried over the line. "You gotta get back here Mac. There's something you gotta see."

"Alright I'm on my way." Mac hung up and stood up from the table. "Look Ms. Hay. I'm going to need you to stay here at least until I get back."

"Whatever..." Catherine sneered angrily and sat back in her seat. Mac motioned to Don and the two left the room and headed back to the crime lab.

**4:26pm - Washington D.C, N.C.I.S Safe House**

"Come on Matt come on..." James muttered as he anxiously listed to the dial tone of his phone.

"Hi you've reached Matt, I'm not able to take your call right now but leave a message and I'll get back to you." The voicemail echoed over the phone.

"God damn it~!" James yelled and threw his phone down beside him on the bed. "Where the hell are you Matt?" James nervously bit the skin around his thumbnail at the thought that something might have happened to his childhood friend. "There has to be a way I can get to him without ruining things for Gibbs and his team..." He looked around the room for ideas but found nothing which only fuelled his frustration. That is, until an agent walked through the door.

"Everything alright in here Mr. Schwepper?" The man asked. Now James had an idea. It probably wasn't the smartest idea, but it made him feel a little better about the situation.

"Not really, actually." He replied. "I need you to come with me to New York Ty..." Ty, the N.C.I.S agent responsible for keeping track of James, looked around a little confused by James request.

"Excuse me?"

"I need you to come with me to New York."

"Mr. Schwepper, you know I can't do that."

"Sure you can. You take me to New York for a few hours and Agent Gibbs won't have to know about your little break yesterday. Deal?"

"That's not fair James. You can't blackmail me into taking you to New York."

"Well then I guess I'll just have to give Agent Gibbs a call..." James turned around and waltzed back to his phone lying on the bed.

"Wait wait wait wait." Ty grabbed James' arm and turned him around. "I do this, you make sure Gibbs doesn't find out about yesterday?"

"I promise, I'll take full responsibility for it. Just pretend like I knocked you out or something."

"Ha, yeah right."

"So shall we get going? It's only a 4 to 5 hour drive dependant on traffic, right?"


	5. Part 4

"Freeze the image right there." Mac ordered as Adam played back the surveillance footage. "There." He pointed to the man on the screen.

"Is that what I think it is?" Don asked, dumbfounded by what he saw on the screen.

"Looks like a skeleton to me." Danny said shaking his head.

"Guess we know why Ms. Hay is so convinced she saw a skeleton." Lindsay added. "He's wearing a skeleton mask."

"So much for facial recognition..." Adam muttered, zooming in on the skeletal face looking directly into the camera.

"Is it just me, or does that skeleton mask look...REAL?" Lindsay more stated then asked as she stepped close to the screen. "Look at the black lines here." She pointed to the black lines across the jaws, cheekbones and forehead. "It looks like this has been sown on."

"You know she's gotta a point Mac." Danny added.

"So what, you mean to tell me that this nut job is takin pieces of people skeletons and makin a mask outta them?" Flack asked rather disturbed by the thought of it.

"From the look of that mask, it seems that way..." Mac sighed.

"Mac, I don't think Mark Quinlan was our killers first victim..." Jo said walking into the room with an envelope in hand.

"What makes you think that Jo?" Mac asked.

"This..." Jo handed him a manila envelope similar to the one Mac had received the first DVD in. Again written on the front in the same hand writing as the first was 'To be delivered to the desk of Detective Mac Taylor' in thick black marker.

"When was this delivered?"

"It wasn't, someone just dropped it off in the elevator."

"Who dropped it off?"

"Oh your guess is as good as mine Mac. It was there when I was coming back from my break."

"So someone, possibly our killer, just dropped this package off in the elevator and we have no idea who did it or when it was left there?"

"That's where I found the other one to boss." Adam intersected.

"Why didn't you tell me that Adam?" Mac more demanded then asked.

"I didn't think much of it at the time."

"If there's another DVD in there Mac we need to find out what's on it..." Don said worried there could be another victim out there. Detective Taylor nodded and carefully opened the envelope, peeking inside the package. Sure enough, there was another DVD with the same 'Play Me' painted in blood on the cover.

"Somebody give me a glove." Mac carefully set the package aside and took the glove Danny handed him, slipping it on his hand and pulling the DVD out of the envelope. "Adam, find out what's on here, Danny. Take the case and check for fingerprints and try and find a hit in CODIS for the blood. Call me as soon as you find something.'

"On it." Danny pulled out another glove slipping it on his hand and taking the case, handing the disc to Adam for processing.

"I'll go with him." Lindsay said following close behind Danny.

"I'll get my guys on alert." Flack added as he turned to leave.

"I'll keep you posted." Mac called after him as Flack dashed down the hall. "Lets hope we can find this guy before he kills anyone else."


	6. Part 5

"Come on James, make this quick will yea? Agent Gibbs'll have my head if he finds out we're here." Ty called from the car window.

"Yeah just a sec.." James called from the bench. He had asked Ty to stop at a bus station briefly, claiming he needed to use the rest room when his REAL intention was to leave behind his cell phone knowing full well that Gibbs and his team could use it to track him. After tying his shoe James quickly sprinted back to the vehicle and left with Ty for New York.

**8:35pm – Washington D.C, N.C.I.S Headquaters**

"Well well looks who finally here. It's McTardy!" DiNozzo chimed with obvious amusement at his colleague being late again.

"Seriously Tony, the McTardy thing? It's really getting old..." Tim muttered as he sat himself down at his desk.

"Well you don't have to be so uptight McGrumpy."

"Tony, we do have work to be doing so if you two are done you should start doing it." Ziva spat from behind her computer.

"What's the matter Ziva? You're in quite a mood today." Tony replied in his usual tone. Ziva stopped what she was doing and gave Tony a quick glare before replying.

"Unlike you I would actually like to do my job Tony. I do not have time for games."

"Who says I'm playing games?"

"You better not be playing games Agent DiNozzo." Gibbs quipped as he walked past Tony's desk to his own. "McGee, pull up Mr. Scweppers phone records for me will you?"

"I'll get right on it." Tim replied quickly pulling up the information on his screen. "What am I looking for boss?"

"I want you to tell me the location of the last call he made."

"OK... Says here the last call Mr. Schwepper made was to New York."

"Again..." DiNozzo added before McGee could continue.

"And it was made from the safe house." McGee finished. "Do you want me to give him a call?"

"Nope, I want Tony to do that. I want YOU to trace his phone." Gibbs ordered.

"Which one?"

"Both."

**10:01pm – New York City**

"Come on Katie, pick up the phone..." James muttered. He was happy that he had two cell phones, he just hoped that Gibbs and his team didn't know about the one he still had. "Come on..."

"Hello?" A young girls voice echoed over the line.

"Katie, it's James."

"James? Oh my God. Where are you?"

"I'm in New York."

"What are you doing in New York, I thought you were in Washington?"

"I was. Hey listen, do you know where your father is? I need to talk to him it's very important."

"Ummm... Actually James..." Katie stopped mid sentence, her voice sounding upset and distant.

"What? Tell me what happened Katie."

"Dad's been missing for a while now..."

"What? How long?"

"About a week. I've tried calling his phone numerous times but I just keep getting his voice mail..."

"OK... Look Katie, I'll be staying at the Helmsley Hotel in Midtown for the night. Why don't you come by around 11:30 and well talk, Ok?"

"Yeah, Ok. What suite?"

"Just tell them you're looking for me and I'll let them know just to let you up alright?"

"Alright. See you later."

"Bye sweetie." With that James hung up and tucked his phone away. "Ty, we need to get to the Helmsley Hotel in Midtown."

"I really hope you know what you're doing James. Gibbs isn't gonna like that you've been gone for so long." Ty replied as he pulled away from the curb and sped down the street to the hotel.

"Yeah, I know. I'll deal with that when it comes..." Unfortunately, James didn't realize that this trip to New York was going to be his last. That night he did meet with Katie, who told him about her brothers strange behaviour and her father's attempts to reach him and get him help only to be met with a cold unfeeling hostility. Eventually her father just stopped trying and was about to turn to the police for help on the matter.

"That's when he went missing." Katie told him. James sat there quietly listening to her story. "I'm just so worried that Kevin may have done something to him. I mean, he took off in such a hurry and he's been acting so weird and those guys are hanging around again."

"Ok ok. Katie calm down. Everythings gonna be Ok." James assured her. "Look. Why don't you go home, wash up and get some rest and I'll see you tomorrow before I go alright?" He put a hand on Katie's shoulder reassuringly and gently kissed her head. "Everything's going to be Ok." Katie nodded, stood up and headed for the door, James not far behind her. "If you need anything just gimme a call. I'll be there in a matter of minutes."

"Ok. Be careful?"

"I'll be fine."

"K.. Bye James. It was nice to meet you Ty."

"Bu-bye miss." Ty waved and nodded his head as Katie walked down the hall and disappeared into the elevator. "James, you know we can't stay very long. We need to leave at the crack of dawn before Gibbs realizes you're no longer in Washington."

"I know. Just chill out Ty, we'll be out of here by morning I promise."

"You better be right..."

**7:13am – Washington D.C. – N.C.I.S Headquarters**

"James it's Agent DiNozzo again. Listen buddy we need you to call us as soon as you get this. It's real important that we know what's going on in case of an emergency..." Tony hung up growing rather frustrated now. "Tenth message in a row and STILL nothing."

"Have you tried calling Ty?" McGee asked, eyes glued to the screen in front of him.

"Yeah, about six times. Nothing from him either. It's like they both just up and vanished into thin air."

"They couldn't have gone too far DiNozzo, keep trying." Gibbs ordered. "Have you tried both of his phones?"

"I've tried both of James cell phones, both their home phones, Ty's pager. All of them lead to dead ends, I can't get a hold of either of them."

"It's been three days. Do you think they caught up with him?" Ziva inquired. It wasn't anything to rule out. James' disappearance could in fact have been orchestrated by the very man he was to testify against in court next week.

"It's a possibility." McGee concurred.

"But I spoke with Collins, he says it's not his doing. Figures if James has gone missing it's because he's run off." Tony added. "Personally I think he's full of crap..."

"He could be telling the truth, but we won't know for sure until we find him. McGee, how's that trace coming?" Gibbs more ordered then asked.

"I'm pulling it up right now..." McGee quickly skimmed over the screen as the trace finished. "Oh..."

"Oh what...?"

"Apparently one of James' phones is at a bus terminal just outside the city."

"Check the surveillance footage, see if he got on a bus. If he's gone somewhere we need to know where."

"On it boss." Tony and Ziva both bolted up from their desks and took off to the terminal James had left his phone at.

**7:30am - New York City, 54 East St Recreation Center**

_'SPLASH'_

The sound of his body hitting the water as he dove in echoed through the empty space like thunder over an open field. It wasn't uncommon for the pool to be empty at this time of day and Mac wasn't about to let this solitude go to waste. He quickly and effortlessly glided under the water's surface before breaking the glassy top and swimming to the other side, pulling himself to the edge of the pool and resting his head on his forearms. The quite sounds of the rec. center were a welcome calm compared to the sounds he'd been hearing all week.

The thought of his latest case made his mind wander and he closed his eyes as he retraced the evidence in his head. He started with the initial crime scenes, then the victims and finally to the suspects and the DVDs being sent directly to his lab.

"There has to be something I'm missing..." He muttered to himself. Before he could come to any conclusions, Mac's train of thought was interrupted by the sounds of a couple entering the pool. "So much for solitude." Just as he was about to push off the wall the all too familiar sound of his ringtone made him turn his head towards his cell phone laying on the bench just under the windows to his left. Quickly and without hesitation Mac pulled himself out of the water and waltzed over to his belongs, grabbing his towel to wipe his hands off before answering his phone. "Taylor."

"Mac, it's Don. Gotta minute?" It was Detective Flack. Shifting his weight Mac threw his towel over his shoulder before replying.

"Sure, what do you need Don?"

"Gotta homicide in Midtown. Looks like our bone guy struck again..."

"Where in Midtown?"

"The Helmsley Hotel, I'll have one of my guys waiting outside to escort you up."

"Alright, I'm on way." That said, Mac hung up, grabbed his things and left for the scene.

By the time he got to The Helmsley the hotel was already sectioned off with yellow crime scene tape and a rather large crowd had gathered out of curiosity at the growing number of officers standing about the entrance and lobby.

"Detective Taylor." One of the officers near the door motioned to Mac who immediately recognized the officer as one of Detective Flacks men. He nodded and followed the officer up to the suite where the scene was waiting to be processed, thanking the man as he walked into the room.

"What did I miss?" Flack turned around to the sound of Mac's voice behind him with a frustrated expression on his face.

"A lota nonsense. A whole floor full of people and not one of them heard anything. Not last night and not this morning. In fact they say they haven't heard anything from this room the whole time our vic's been checked in here which is bogus if you ask me..." Flack said flipping through his note pad.

"Who's our vic?" Mac asked setting his kit down and pulling out his latex gloves to start his walk through.

"His name's James Schwepper, 27 year old male, Caucasian. Apparently he was down here from Washington D.C to visit a friend."

"Do we know where the friend is?"

"Nah, gotta lead though. Neighbour says they saw a kid here with the vic two nights ago, I'm having my guys pull the surveillance footage. Should have it at the lab in a little while."

"Thanks Don."

"No problem Mac." As the conversation came to a close, Don walked out of the room to leave Mac to his work. Today was going to be a long day.

"So what have we got Mac?" Jo asked as she ducked under the crime scene tape and walked into the room.

"Same thing as the first two. He was bled out through the carotid artery in the left side of his neck, and then the killer took the blade and cut open his chest. Looks like he took a rib this time..." Mac muttered as he snapped a photo of the body.

"So, the killer starts with Mathew Lakehill in The Bronx. Then he goes after Mark Quinlan in the same area, and now he's moved to Midtown where he kills James Schwepper. What's his game?" Jo thought aloud as she snapped a few shots of the scene.

"Jo, take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"Didn't you say that Mathew Lakehill had been stabbed in the abdomen prior to being killed?"

"Yes, Sid found a small puncture wound just under his ribcage."

"It looks like James was stabbed in a similar fashion, see here?" Mac pointed to a small puncture wound under the right side of James' ribcage. "Why would our killer suddenly revert back to stabbing his victim prior to bleeding them out?"

"Maybe he knew this one to? By the look on Mathew's face in the video it looked like he knew the man that killed him."

"So who've we got this time?" Danny asked stepping into the room behind Jo.

"James Schwepper, 27 year old male from Washington D.C." Mac replied from his spot next to the body.

"He's goin after Washingtonians now? Sheesh, this guy really gets around doesn't he?"

"He guys." Flack called from the doorway. "I gotta kid downstairs who says she may know a little something about our Skeleton Killer."

"What's her name?" Mac asked peeking over his shoulder at Don.

"That's the thing. She says her names Katie Lakehill."

"Katie Lakehill?" Jo repeated a little shocked.

"Same last name as the first victim." Danny commented.

"Jo, go with Flack and see what this girl has to say. If she DOES know anything about the killer you let me know." Mac ordered. Jo nodded and followed Detective Flack down to the lobby of the hotel where the young girl waited with a familiar manila envelope tucked under her arm.

"Katie Lakehill?" Jo asked as she approached the girl. Katie turned her head, her long brown hair neatly framing her pale white face. Jo could clearly see the fear and upset settled deep in her hazel eyes.

"Yes, I'm Katie." She replied sheepishly.

"Hi, I'm Detective Jo Danville. I understand you may have some information for me about our suspect?"

"Yes. I think I may know who the Skeleton Killer is."

"Who?"

"I think it's my brother, Kevin." Jo was taken aback by Katie's accusation and stood there momentarily shocked.

"Your brother? What makes you think it's your brother?"

"This..." Katie handed Jo an envelope similar to the ones Mac had received. There on the cover written in the same black marker was Katie's name and upon feeling out the contents of the package, Jo knew that this was another of the discs, possibly the video of James Schweppers murder.

"How old are you sweetie?"

"I'm 14."

"Would you mind coming with me? I just have a few more questions I'd like to ask you."

**Washington D.C., 7:56am – N.C.I.S Headquarters**

"I still don't get it, nor do I think I want to get it..." Ziva said with a rather displeased look on her face. Tony merely leaned back in his chair with a smug look.

"It's a guy thing Ziva, I wouldn't expect you to understand it..." He grinned at her from his desk as he kicked his feet upon the top, which only seemed to annoy Ziva even more.

"I hope that grin means you've got something for me DiNozzo." Gibbs quipped as he strolled past Tony's desk to his own again. DiNozzo quickly threw his feet off his desk and sat up straight.

"Uhh not yet boss. Still can't get a hold of our witness, I'm working on the other leads." He replied.

"Well, get going. We have 24 hours to find him. Let's just hope we find him in one piece." Gibbs replied seating himself at his desk before looking to Tim. "McGee, phone records?"

"According to our witnesses phone records he made a call to New York three days prior to his disappearance on his second phone and again approximately 12 hours prior to his disappearance." Tim was quick to reply.

"Where was the last call made?"

"Uhh, let me see..." Tim was quiet for a moment. "Oh..."

"Oh what?"

"The last call he made was to New York, FROM New York..."

"Looks like he went anyway..." Tony commented. "What d'you want to do boss?"

"DiNozzo, get on the phone with the NYPD and see if they know anything. I want an alert out on him, McGee, trace his last call I want an exact location. Ziva, check his list of contacts and see if any of the numbers match the last call made from his phone. If he's in New York, we need to find him before anyone else does."

"On it boss." Tony quickly grabbed his phone and started dialling numbers, Tim was hot on the trail of tracing the exact location of James' last call and Ziva swiftly whipped out the list of contacts and started comparing numbers.

"Ok, the last call he made was to a land line. Name of the person he was calling comes back as a Mathew Lakehill in The Bronx." Ziva confirmed.

"I got his last known location. It was a suite in the Helmsley Hotel in Midtown." Tim added. Now it was all on Tony who was busy on the phone with a detective from New York.

"Detective Flack." Flack's voice echoed on the other end of the line.

"Hi Detective Flack, this is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo calling I'm with N.C.I.S." Tony replied. "Do you have a moment?"

"Sure, what can I do you for Agent DiNozzo?"

"I'm looking for a man that was last seen in Midtown New York, he's a witness under protective custody we've been trying to reach for the past 72 hours with no luck. He's supposed to be here in Washington D.C. but it seems he took it upon himself to take a little road trip to see a friend."

"You say he was last seen in Midtown?"

"Yes, around the Helmsley Hotel."

"Hmm..." Flack was quiet for a moment having just returned from a homicide in Midtown at the very hotel DiNozzo mentioned. "You know, I think you may want to give Detective Mac Taylor a call. He's in Midtown right now; he may be able to give you a hand."

**The Helmsley Hotel, 9:28am – New York City**

"So you think this is our Skeleton Killer again for sure?" Danny more stated then asked as he bagged the victims' hands tightly.

"It's too early to say. But the evidence seems to be pointing in that direction..." Mac replied from the other side of the room as he bagged another fibre. "So far I'm not seeing a connection between our latest victim and the first two. If this is our guy, then why would he suddenly shift his course and go back to the old habit of stabbing his victim before bleeding them out?"

"This guy does like to keep us guessing. Maybe he's trying to throw us off."

"Or maybe he's trying to tell us something..." Before Mac could finish his phone started to ring. He reached in his pocket and pulled it out looking at the number to see who it was. "That's odd..."

"What's up?"

"Why is a private number from Washington D.C calling me?"

"A private number, from Washington? Maybe it's connected to the case? I mean, the vic IS from Washington." Danny shrugged and stopped what he was doing for a moment as Mac answered the call.

"Detective Taylor."

"Detective Taylor, hi. This is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo I'm with N.C.I.S. Do you have a minute?" DiNozzo asked.

"Not at the moment, I'm in the middle of processing a crime scene. What does N.C.I.S need with the NYPD?" Mac replied a little put off.

"We have a witness under protective custody that was last seen in Midtown New York and we were hoping that the NYPD might know something about his whereabouts. I was told by a Detective Flack that you were the man to talk to."

"Have you tried contacting your witness or any agents that may have been escorting him?"

"That's the problem Detective. We've been trying to contact him and the agent with him for the past 72 hours with no luck. We're running out of time." Mac was silent for a moment trying to assess the new situation. He looked to the floor momentarily, and then his eyes slowly trailed over to Danny and finally the victim, James Schwepper, on the floor. "Detective Taylor?"

"Can you give me a description of your witness?"

"Uhh, sure. He's about 5'8", Caucasian, slim build, brown eyes, wavy dark brown hair." Mac moved his phone away from his mouth and motioned to Danny to get his attention.

"What colour are the victims eyes?"

"Uhh, lemme see here." Danny got up and paced around the vic to get a good look at his eyes. "Looks like brown to me boss. Why?"

"I'll tell you in a moment. Agent DiNozzo, could you tell me the name of your witness?" Mac asked.

"I'm not really at liberty to say."

"Is his name James Schwepper per chance?" There was silence on the other end of the line. "Agent DiNozzo?"

"Yes. How did you..?" DiNozzo was cut off before he could finish.

"I think I know where your witness is."

"Great! So uhh, could you tell me where he is?"

"He's laying face down in a pool of his own blood in a suite at the Helmsley Hotel here in Midtown New York..."


	7. Part 6

"So Katie, can you tell me again where you got this DVD?" Jo asked as she walked down the street with Katie Lakehill. The young girl looked to the ground hugging herself at the thought of it all.

"I found it in my room. It had been left in my doorway I'm guessing sometime while I was out last night..." Katie replied obviously upset.

"Did you open the package at all?"

"Yeah.. I mean it has my name on it so..."

"Ok.. Did you watch the DVD?"

"I did... I didn't get it at first, but when I saw my uncle in the hotel I..." Katie's voice trailed off at the thought of the gruesome scene. Jo on the other hand was more concerned with WHAT Kaite had just said rather than HOW she said.

"Did you just say your uncle?" Katie looked up at Jo a little confused before replying.

"Y-yes, James was my uncle..."

"OK... Sweetie, would you mind coming with me to the lab? There's just one more thing I need your help with..."

**12:34pm – New York City Crime Lab**

"Are you serious? A witness for N.C.I.S?" Sheldon asked rather shocked. "What was he doing here in New York?"

"Apparently he was here to see a friend. Still no sign of the agent he was with." Danny replied.

"Do we know who the agent was?"

"Nah not yet. Mac's still on the phone with N.C.I.S gettin the details of it all."

"Do you think they'll be coming to New York?" Lindsay asked knowing full well that the agents from N.C.I.S would more than likely show up.

"It's possible, I mean this was their only witness. He's not really any use to them sitting on a cold slab in autopsy." Sheldon commented, turning his head slightly to Mac's office. "I don't think I've seen Mac looking that serious in a long time."

"Yeah.." Danny concurred glancing over at his boss. "This must be deeper than Mr. DiNozzo first let on..."

"And you're absolutely sure that the last know location was the Helmsley?" Mac inquired.

"I'm pretty confident yeah." Gibbs replied. "My agents traced his last call to that very hotel in Midtown."

"Can you give me the name of the agent he was supposed to be with?"

"He wasn't there?"

"No, we only found James's body in the suite."

"So he's still missing." Gibbs paused in thought.

"Agent Gibbs. It would benefit you and your team in the long if you gave us a bit more information to work with. I understand he was in witness protection but there's no sense in protecting a dead man." Mac paused briefly before continuing. "I'm not questioning your judgement Agent Gibbs, but if you could at LEAST tell me the name of the agent with him it might help me find the man that killed your witness..." Finally Gibbs spoke up.

"The agent that was with him was Agent Ty Kimble. He's a 36 year old male, Caucasian, he's about 5'9", weight about 153lbs. He too was last seen at the Helmsley where James was staying."

"Alright." Mac quickly jotted down the information on a piece of paper and held it up so Danny and Sheldon could see it from the next room. _'If they have time to sit there staring at me from the other room they have time to start looking for this agent...'_ He thought to himself as both men in the other room got up to get back to work, Danny quickly running into Mac's office to snatch up the paper he had. "I appreciate your help Agent Gibbs."

"I should be thanking you Detective."

"What for?"

"Catching our killer." Before Mac could reply Gibbs continued. "How big is your lab Detective?"

"It's a fair size. Why do you ask?"

"My team and I are coming to New York and we'll need the use of your lab while we're there."

"Ok... Well, I'll let my team know. When are you leaving?"

"Now."

"Alright, we'll see you in about 4 hours then."

"See you in 4 hours Detective." With their plans finalized, Agent Gibbs and Detective Taylor hung up.

"Mac." Mac turned his head as Jo and Katie Lakehill walked into his office. "Do you have the first two DVDs our killer left here? I want to see if Katie recognizes anything from them."

"So you're Katie Lakehill...?" Mac more stated then asked as he leaned forward and pulled the DVDs from his desk drawer.

"Yes sir..." Katie replied shyly.

"Detective Taylor is fine..." Mac replied a little irritated. He hated being called sir more then he cared to describe.

"Sorry Detective..."

"It's fine... This way." Mac got up and led Katie and Jo to Adam's workstation. "Adam." Again Adam jumped at the sound of Mac's voice.

"Yeah boss?" He asked as he spun his chair around.

"I want you to show Katie what's on these discs."

"O...K..? How much should I be showing her?"

"As much as it takes."

"Mac, can I have a word with you in the hall?" Jo asked as she stepped aside with him.

"Something wrong?"

"Katie told me something while we were walking that concerned me a lot." Jo looked Mac in the eyes before continuing. "Mac, she's James Schweppers niece."

"So she's related to the third victim."

"Not just that, she accused her older brother of being the killer." Mac looked back into the room at the young girl standing next to Adam quite deep in thought.

"Did she say why she thought it was him?"

"Not yet, I wanted to see if she recognized either of the first two victims before I questioned her any more about her brother."

"Alright... Leave that to me, I want you to go see how Danny and Hawkes are doing with our search for the missing N.C.I.S agent." Mac turned back to the room. "And if you happen to see Lindsay on your way there tell her that Agent Gibbs and his team are coming to New York."

"Alright I'll let her know." Jo walked off to find Danny and Sheldon while Mac walked back into the room with his arms crossed.

"Can you stop it right there?" Katie asked as she pointed to the screen.

"Sure." Adam paused the video and looked between the screen and Katie.

"See something you recognize Katie?" Mac asked.

"Yeah... Can you zoom in on those two at the table there?" She pointed to a man and a girl sitting at a round white table on the patio of a restaurant. Adam carefully zoomed in on the two and cleaned up the image so Katie could take a better look. "That's me and my Dad... That's the day he disappeared."

"Did you report your father missing?" Mac stepped closer to the screen realizing now that Katie had just identified the first victim as her father.

"I did, but nothing ever really came of it. The officer I spoke to didn't seem to believe me. Guess I'm just at that age where people automatically assume you're just pulling some stupid prank..." The young girl hung her head a little. "Detective Taylor... Is my Dad dead?" She looked up at him when he didn't reply. "I want the truth so I don't go out there looking for something I'll never find..." Mac sighed heavily before answering her.

"I'm afraid so. You're father's name is Mathew Lakehill?" Katie nodded.

"So he is dead...?"

"Yes. Your father was the first victim to be targeted by our suspect." Mac put his hand on Katie's arm in an effort to comfort her as she looked to the floor quite upset. "Detective Danville tells me you think the killer is your brother. Why is that?" Katie looked back up at Mac, swallowing hard past the lump in her throat.

"I just have that feeling... Are any of the bones from the people that were killed missing?"

"Yes... How did you know that?"

"When Kevin..."

"Kevin's your brother?"

"Yes.. When my brother was younger, he used to kill animals and take one the bones from the bodies and bring them home. He'd clean them up and make really awful things out of them, one time he even made a small mask out of different parts of a bunch of coyote skulls but my Dad made him throw them out... He was real mad, kept saying that all of his friends were doing it to..." Mac looked back to the screen trying to piece everything together.

"Katie, do you think if you heard your brothers voice that you'd be able to point him out?"

"Yeah, his voice isn't something you easily forget..."

"Alright. Adam, playback the first few minutes of Mark Quinlan's hotel scene on the DVD."

"On it." Adam quickly popped in the disc and scanned ahead to the scene where the killer had Mark cornered in the Ramada Bronx Hotel suite he was murdered in.

"Oh my God... Oh my God..." Mark stumbled off the bed and crawled backwards across the floor shaking as the man behind the camera slowly walked into the room, pushing the house keeper out and locking the door. "Please, please no. Please don't do this!" The man behind the camera paused as Mark pleaded with him for his life. "Please, I'll give you whatever you want!"

"Whatever I want?" The camera man replied in a hoarse voice. Mac turned his head to Katie momentarily to see how she was reacting to the sound of the killers voice before turning back to Adam and giving him the nod to keep going.

"Yes whatever you want! Money, my watch, my credit cards. ANYTHING! Just please, don't kill me!"

"Whatever **I** want." The man repeated as he strolled closer to Mark, backing him right into the wall.

"Yes, just tell me what it is and you can have it!" The man was silent for a moment as he leaned down once again bringing Mark's face right into the eyes of the camera.

"I want..." He paused giving the room an eerie chill with his words. "Your skull..." Just as the camera lunged forward Adam paused the playback and looked back to Mac and Katie.

"Katie?" Mac asked.

"Can you play back the part where he said 'Whatever I want' the first time?" She asked motioning with her hand. Mac nodded and Adam rewound the video to the first instant the killer spoke.

"Whatever I want?" The camera man's voice boomed through the speakers. Mac and Adam both looked to Katie again as she crossed her arms with a terrified look in her eyes.

"In the disc that was in the envelope in my room he never spoke but..." She paused and nodded her head, biting her lip as she glance at the floor. "That's him... That's my older brother's voice..."

"This guy is like a ghost. Whatever he's up to, the NYPD is not privy to anymore information then what Agent Gibbs gave Mac over the phone..." Danny growled frustrated with his dead ends.

"Well he DOES work for the Navy." Sheldon added.

"Still doesn't make this any less frustrating then it already is..." Danny looked to Jo sitting at the other computer in the room. "And you say that Gibbs and his team are comin to New York?"

"Yep, that's what Mac said. They should be here soon." Jo replied looking over an email from a friend in the FBI.

"So uh, any luck with your FBI buddies?"

"Not really. He says he's never heard of this Agent Ty Kimble and we should probably wait for Gibbs and his team to get here before we dig any further."

"Great, another dead end." Danny huffed. "Well I'm out of ideas." Jo leaned back in her chair with a sigh.

"Maybe your friend is right Jo. Maybe it WOULD be better to just wait for Agent Gibbs and his team to get here. It would be a lot easier to ask them questions when we can look them right in the eye." Sheldon commented.

"Let's just hope they're more willing to share in person then they are over the phone." Jo replied.

"Any luck with our agent?" Mac questioned as he walked into the room.

"No, nothing more then what you didn't already know." Jo responded.

"Alright. Well in the mean I need you and Hawkes to wait here for Gibbs and his team in case they show up here instead of the precinct. Danny I need you to come with me."

"Sure, where we goin boss?" Danny asked as he sprung up from his chair obviously happy to be doing something that might get the investigation somewhere.

"Katie gave us a lead." Mac replied.

"To our killer?"

"No, but it might lead us to one of his followers." Mac and Danny quickly boarded the elevator as the doors pulled open.

"One of his followers?"

**5:36pm – NYPD Precinct 13, Three N.C.I.S Agents Arrive**

"Wow, some place we've got here..." DiNozzo commented looking around the precinct. "Being here kinda reminds me of Assault On Precinct 13." DiNozzo turned to Ziva standing beside him with her usual look of confusion and disapproval. "You know, the one with Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne... The 2005 remake directed by Jean-Francois Rechiet?"

"No Tony I do not know the 2005 remake of Assault On Precinct 13. That is not the thing to be talking about while standing IN a police precinct anyway, we are here on business." She spat.

"Look sharp you two." Gibbs ordered as he walked towards an officer.

"Can I help you?" The officer asked as Gibbs and his team approached the desk. Gibbs held up his badge before even beginning his sentence.

"I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, N.C.I.S. I believe one of my agents spoke to a Detective Flack over the phone and I'd like to speak with him." Gibbs demanded.

"Sure thing Agent Gibbs." The officer got up from his chair and walked back to Don's desk.

"Tell me again why we came to the precinct first?" DiNozzo questioned no one in particular.

"Because Detective Taylor is out, remember DiNozzo?" Gibbs replied without ever taking his eyes off Don as he walked up to the head of the precinct. "Detective Flack I presume?" Don nodded his head and put his hands together.

"At your service. You're Agent Gibbs from N.C.I.S I take it?" Don replied.

"I am. You wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of Detective Taylor would you Detective?"

"I do, in fact I'll take you there myself. I was just on my way out the door."

"Where is he exactly Detective?"

"He's apprehending a suspect as we speak."

**5:52pm – Hunters Point, Queens**

"NYPD, stop!" Mac yelled as he raced down the street with Danny after their suspect. Almost the moment they had approached the door to the building Katie had directed them to Mac knew this man wasn't going to come quietly. He'd barely opened the door a crack when the man pushed it open knocking both him and Danny to the ground before bolting off down the hall and out the front door. "Danny keep going I'm going to try and cut him off!" Mac quickly dashed down an alley in an attempt to cut off their suspect.

"You go it boss!" Danny on the other hand kept up his pursuit of the man. "Gah, where the hell's Don when you need him!" He huffed jumping over a pile of garbage cans the suspect tipped in an effort to stop Danny from pursuing. "NYPD, stop!" He yelled even though he knew it wouldn't stop him. Danny was almost sure he was going to lose him in traffic until Mac came flying out of the alley ahead knocking the suspect to the ground. "Haha, Boom!" Danny skidded to a halt a few feet from where Mac was handcuffing the man. "Way to go boss!"

"Heh..." Mac chuckled a bit at Danny's enthusiasm. "Next time you plan on running from the law you should try doing it before you decide to assault two officers with a door." Mac was just about to stand him up when a shadow blocked out the sun.

"Detective Taylor I presume?" A familiar man's voice carried over the street noise. Mac looked up to four figures standing before him, one he knew automatically to be Don but he didn't recognize the other three.

"Yes, who's asking?" He replied squinting from the light. Before speaking again the man pulled out a badge and held it up for Mac to see.

"I'm Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs, this is Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo and Special Agent Ziva David we're with N.C.I.S." Gibbs paused as Mac gave him an odd look from his spot on the ground. "We spoke on the phone earlier."

Now Mac understood what was going on and why this mans voice sounded so familiar. He looked down at his suspect before looking back to the men and woman standing in front of him. The N.C.I.S agents had arrived in New York City.


	8. Part 7

"So you're just gonna sit there and be all silent like last night?" Don asked angrily. The man in the opposite chair merely glared at him just as hostile. "OK fine, you can play you're little silent game all you want but you will talk." Don stood up and put his coat back on as the man grinned at his statement. "I don't care how long it takes or how many people I need to get in here to break you you'll talk." He nodded to one of the officers standing by the door as he walked out letting them know he was done with this idiot.

"How'd it go Flack?" One of his colleagues called from their desk with a wide grin on their face.

"Yeah yeah laugh it up. I don't see you in there busting your ass trying to get Mr. Freeze in there to talk." Don rebuked making his colleague laugh even harder. He shook his head frustrated and sat at his desk to think of a way to get this guy to talk. As it stood now he was the only lead in this case and they weren't about to let him go without answers. "These N.C.I.S agents better get settled soon or I might shoot this guy before they get the chance to talk with him..." He sighed momentarily before grabbing his phone and dialling Jo Danville's number. "Might as well get that damn report done for the agents while I'm waiting for this bozo to come outta his shell..."

**7:16am – New York Crime Lab**

_'SPLASH'_

"Oh.. That's not good..." Tony cringed as Detective Taylor and Agent Gibbs collided in the hall sending the coffee in their cups all over them. "Gibbs without his morning coffee is not a happy Gibbs..."

"You sayin this is a problem Tony?" Danny asked pointing to the put off men standing there glaring at each other.

"Problem doesn't quite cover it Detective Messer..."

"Huh..." Danny and Tony watched as the two looked at everything but each other as they spoke while attempting to clean the coffee from their suits.

"Where are you going in such a hurry Detective Taylor...?" Gibbs asked refraining from looking Mac in the eyes.

"I WAS heading to the staff room to get Lindsay but it looks like I'm going to the bathroom..." Mac replied angrily wiping the coffee from his suit. "What do you need Agent Gibbs?"

"I want to speak with Katie Lakehill."

"She's with Sid in the morgue identifying a body for me, you're more than welcome to take Detective Messer with you to get her and use my office to ask her whatever you want to know." Mac turned around and threw his coffee in the trash can.

"Where'd Dr. Hawkes and Detective Flack disappear to?"

"They left to compile a report so we can get your team settled and up to date." Mac pulled out a napkin and wiped his hands off. "Speaking of which, when is the rest of your team supposed to arrive?"

"They should be here any minute Detective." Gibbs walked with Mac to the bathroom to try and clean up the coffee from his own suit as best he could. "Hope you don't mind if my M.E. assists with the autopsy of Mr. Schwepper."

"Actually I do mind." Mac retorted as he smacked the button on the hand dryer and started trying to dry off his jacket.

"I wasn't asking Mac."

"I wasn't kidding. This is my investigation and my M.E. is more than capable of performing this autopsy himself."

"I'm not questioning the ability of your M.E. Detective but this was my witness and I want my M.E. in on the autopsy." Gibbs slowly walked up behind Mac and watched him until he turned around to face him. "If I need to I'll speak to your chief about it."

"Are you kidding me...?" Mac more stated then asked. "Are you really threatening to go to the chief of police because I don't want your M.E.'s help?"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing Detective."

"Have fun then Agent Gibbs." Mac pushed passed him and walked out the door, Gibbs in hot pursuit. "Your M.E. can sit in but my M.E. will do the autopsy."

"Taylor!" Mac stopped and spun around to see Chief Brigham Sinclair marching down the hall and Agent Gibbs hanging up his phone beside him.

"Had to be done Mac." Gibbs said putting his phone away. Mac merely glared at him and turned around to face the angry chief.

"You mind tellin me why I'm getting a call from Agent Gibbs telling me that my detective refused to let his M.E. in on the autopsy?" Sinclair was beyond furious and Mac could tell he wasn't about to give him what he wanted, but he wasn't about to give in either.

"With all due respect chief, this is an NYPD investigation and my M.E. is perfectly capable of performing the autopsy himself. He doesn't need the assistance of N.C.I.S personnel." Mac refuted. Chief Sinclair wasn't having it though. He tilted his head and gave Mac a look that almost read like he wanted to smack him in the head for being so stubborn.

"You're a real piece of work Taylor you know that?"

"So I've been told..." Mac shifted his weight hoping this conversation wouldn't drag on much longer.

" I know full well that this is an NYPD investigation but this isn't the time for you to get your ego all out of joint simply because you don't want to share the investigation with a man as stubborn as you are."

"My ego has nothing to do with this."

"Then what it is Taylor? Enlighten me."

"I don't want N.C.I.S assisting my M.E. because this is in my jurisdiction chief, this is **MY** case."

"And this last victim was a witness for the Navy Detective not to mention their agent is still missing. It's N.C.I.S jurisdiction now." Chief Sinclair turned to leave but pointed at Mac to make sure the Detective understood his orders. "Their M.E. is to assist Dr. Hammerback with the autopsy, that's an order Taylor." That was it, Mac was screwed now. He hated it when this happened but he knew he couldn't defy a direct order from the chief as much as he might like to. He turned his head to Agent Gibbs still standing beside him with a satisfied look in his eyes that made Mac want to deck him.

"What? Are you expecting me to roll over and give you my case Agent Gibbs because you can't keep track of your witness or your agents? I don't think so." Mac growled angrily determined to keep his position on the case.

"I'm not taking over your investigation Detective Taylor. I'm offering you the chance to cooperate with me and my team and work on this together as a unit." Gibbs replied.

"Yeah well I don't need it." Mac turned and marched off to the elevator with Gibbs and headed to the morgue where Sid was preparing for the autopsy. "I'll take you to the morgue myself, you can bring your M.E. down when he arrives..."

**7:26am – New York Crime Lab, Morgue. Dr. Mallard Arrives**

"Mac should be down here any moment to bring you back upstairs Katie." Sid could tell the girl was a little uncomfortable being down here in the morgue. She would have gone back to Detective Taylor's office with Sheldon had he and Jo not been called off by Don to assist with the report for the other Agents arriving from Washington. To alleviate Dr. Hawkes Sid had offered to keep her here until Mac was finished so Sheldon could leave.

"I know, I'm just a little shaken up you know?" Katie replied sitting on one of the bare tables. She kept eyeing the walls lined with the bodies of the dead lying on ice, her eyes lingering on her father's name on one of the doors then her uncle's on the door beside it.

"If it upsets you to be in here you can wait in the hallway Katie, he shouldn't be much longer."

"No that's ok, I'll stay here. I can't imagine very many people come down here to see you very often..." Sid couldn't help but laugh a little at Katie's observation.

"No not really. But it's not that bad, I'm used to the silence."

"I don't think I could ever get used to it..." Katie looked to the floor briefly before the sound of someone walking through the door and interrupting the silence of the dead made her look up.

"I don't suppose you would like some company down here." The elder man stood in the doorway taking in the morgue, setting his satchel off the side and removing his coat. Sid stopped in the middle of cutting off the victims' shirt and turned his head to the door to see who had walked in.

"Oh no please, heh." Sid laughed a little. "The more the merrier right?" The other man chuckled in response as he approached the body on the table, slipping on a pair of latex gloves out of habit and anticipation.

"So they say." He looked over the body with curiosity before looking to Katie sitting on the other table. "I could hazard a guess that you're Katie Lakehill."

"Yes." She replied still a little shaky from the events.

"I thought so. Jethro and Detective Taylor are waiting for you down the hall my dear, by the elevator. Best not keep them waiting." Katie nodded and trotted off down the hall leaving the two men in the morgue. "So, Dr. Hammerback is it?"

"Uh yes, Sid Hammerback." Sid extended his hand to the elder man who happily accepted. "Please call me Sid." The man smiled and removed his hat setting it aside with his coat and satchel.

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Sid. Dr. Donald Mallard at your service, but you may call me Ducky. I'm the medical examiner for N.C.I.S." The M.E.s nodded in affirmation of each other and Ducky quickly dressed himself in scrubs for the autopsy. "So, shall we get started on poor Mr. Shwepper here Sid?"

**7:35am – New York Crime Lab. Abby and McGee arrive**

The doors to the elevator pulled open revealing the floor and glass walls of the New York crime lab.

"Here we are." McGee commented stepping off with Abby and looking around. "Wonder where Tony went. He was supposed to meet us here."

"We'll find him McGee." Abby said looking down the halls taking everything in. "All else fails we'll just go find Detective Taylor."

"But we don't even know where to look Abby."

"I'm sure his office has his name on it McGee besides." Abby pointed to the walls all around. "The walls are made of glass; it can't be that hard to find someone here." Abby grabbed the dolly behind her and pulled it down the hall peering through all the walls to see if she recognized any of her teammates in the rooms, McGee not far behind.

"Are you sure you should be doing that Abby?"

"Relax McFreak." Tony's voice made Abby and Tim turn around to face him. "It's not a crime."

"Tony, where were you?" Abby questioned. "You were supposed to meet us by the elevator."

"Nature called." Tony looked to the dolly behind Abby and snickered. "What'd you do Abby, bring your whole lab with you?"

"No, just the essentials."

"Caf-Pow?"

"Maybe a little."

"Tony!" DiNozzo turned his head to see Danny Messer waving him down the hall.

"Ah, there's our escort now." Tony turned to his teammates and ushered them to follow him. "Danny this is Special Agent Tim McGee and our forensic specialist Abby Sciuto. McFreak, Abby." Tony paused and motioned to Danny. "This is Detective Danny Messer. He'll be taking us where we need to go."

"Nice to meet you Detective Messer." McGee shook Danny's hand with a smile.

"Ahh please, none of that Detective Messer crap. Just call me Danny." Danny replied with a similar grin then turned and shook Abby's hand. "So I guess it's safe to assume I'll be seeing a lot of you Abby?"

"You bet." Abby smiled with a hand on her hip. "So, where's the evidence?"

"You just got here and you already want to go through the evidence? Sheesh, you N.C.I.S agents are hardcore..." Danny laughed and ushered the Agents to follow. "This way Mrs. Sciuto." He led them down the hall to the section of the lab where Lindsay was busy examining the little evidence remaining from the homicides. "Hey Montana, we got company." Lindsay looked up and smiled when she saw Danny walk into the room with Tony, Tim and Abby.

"You two must be the rest of Agent Gibbs team." She said looking at Abby's lab coat.

"Yeah, this is Special Agent Tim McGee and our forensic specialist Abby Sciuto." Tony nodded his head at Lindsay. "This is Detective Messer's wife, Detective Monroe... Or is it Messer now?"

"It's Messer now but either will do." Lindsay replied. "So Abby, what's in all those boxes?" She pointed to the dolly Abby pulled behind her full to the brim with boxes labelled N.C.I.S. Forensics.

"Oh this? Just a few things that might help make our jobs a little bit easier." She smiled and pulled off one of the boxes lying on top and shoved it into Tony's arms. "Here Tony, help me unload."

"Why can't you have McLazy over there help you unload?" Tony whined setting the box on a nearby stool.

"Because McGee helped me pack back in Washington while you were here in New York." Abby replied handing him another box. "Now quit whining and help me. The faster I'm unpacked and set up the faster we can get to work!"

**7:42am – New York Crime Lab, Detective Mac Taylor's Office**

She had to admit it; she was terrified of these two. Mac Taylor was an intimidating man himself but putting him in the same room as Agent Gibbs? Katie could feel the tension between the two men as Gibbs went through the report Detective Danville had just brought into the office, Mac eyeing him carefully from his desk. Yes it was true Katie barely knew Detective Taylor and she had just met Agent Gibbs but she had just lost her uncle and her father. Why WOULDN'T she be scared? She fidgeted uncomfortably in the chair beside Mac's desk, biting her lip, twiddling her thumbs and tracing the outline of her feet on the floor all in an effort to distract herself from the two men.

It must have worked to. She didn't even hear Detective Taylor talking to her until he put his hand on her arm almost making her jump out of the chair.

"Sorry Katie didn't mean to scare you." He said calmly trying to keep the young girl as calm as he could. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah..." She nodded settling back down in the chair. "Yeah I'm ok... Just a little jumpy I guess..."

"Who wouldn't be after what you've just been through...?" Mac put his hand on Katie's in an effort to comfort her. "If you need to take a break from all this you let me know alright?"

"Ok..."

"So Katie, you're father was Mathew Lakehill?" Gibbs asked reading through the last page of the report." Katie looked to Mac unsure of what to say until he nodded assuring her everything was ok.

"Y-yes. He disappeared a couple of weeks ago. I called it in but nothing ever really came of it..." She pulled down the sleeves of her shirt and choked past the lump in her throat trying not to let her pain show to much in front of the officers.

"How old are you?"

"Uh, I'm 14..."

"Detective Danville wrote in this report that you believe the suspect is your older brother Kevin is that right?"

"Yes."

"What makes you think it's your brother?"

"The way these people were killed... Bled out through the neck like that. Then going as far as to take a bone from the body not to mention his voice..."

"You've heard the killer speak?"

"Yeah he spoke in one of the video's he left here for Detective Taylor."

"That's what I'm having Adam show your team right now." Mac added before Gibbs could ask about it.

"And you have a suspect in custody right now Detective Taylor?"

"He's not talking, but yes."

"Let's talk to him again then."

"You can try, but I'm telling you Agent Gibbs the man's not talking. We've tried every method we know, he hasn't said a word since we brought him in." Mac narrowed his eyes a little when Gibbs dropped the report on his desk and turned to leave.

"Not my methods Detective."


	9. Part 8

Silence. That was all the officers heard from the other side of the one way mirror in the interrogation room.

"Man is this guy patient or what?" Danny commented. Agent Gibbs had been sitting in this room with their only suspect on the Skeleton Killer case for a little over an hour now. Occasionally he would ask a question or two but the room fell silent again when the man didn't respond.

"That's Gibbs for yeah..." Tony noted. "Eerily patient is probably a better word for it... He's like one of those trapdoor spiders, waiting for the right time to spring out and bite."

"Do you always describe your boss like this behind his back Agent DiNozzo?" Mac asked looking at him from his peripheral vision. Tony laughed to himself with a big grin and nodded.

"Yeah, sometimes..." He looked to Detective Taylor who had a similar look of disapproval on his face to one he'd seen Gibbs give him and quickly wiped the smile off his face. "I mean, no. Of course not." He retorted. "That would be unprofessional..."

"And inappropriate...?" Mac added.

"Exactly..."

"Uh-huh.." Mac chuckled to himself and turned his attention back to the interrogation room. If Gibbs was in fact as Tony described in his, well... Odd manor, he should be able to get at least a word or two out of this man. Really it was the only hope he had left, as much as he wished it wasn't, and he was praying he could make him talk before he had to release him.

"We can sit here all day if you like. I've got nothing better planned..."Gibbs commented on the man's silence. The man in the other chair just sat there staring at him with a blank brainwashed expression on his face.

"This is getting ridiculous..." Mac muttered as he stormed to the door.

"Uhh Detective Taylor, Gibbs doesn't like to be disturbed in interrogation!" Tony called after Detective Taylor but he was too late, Mac had already slammed the door and stormed off into the other room. "Oh... That's not good..."

"This gonna be a problem Tony?" Danny asked. Tony merely looked at him a little concerned telling Danny all he needed to know. "Fair enough..."

"There any particular reason you're in here Detective?" Gibbs asked taking a sip of his coffee without ever looking at Mac.

"I didn't think I needed a reason to be in my own interrogation room." Mac retorted. "This has been going on for an hour and half now Agent Gibbs." Mac pointed to the suspect in the chair across from the agent.

"And?"

"And? Don't you think this has gone on a little too long?"

"I've got nothing better to do."

"He's not talking. I told you that and my colleagues told you that."

"I'm aware of what I've been told Detective." Gibbs looked to Mac less than impressed. "Are you going to stand there interrupting me in the middle of my interrogation or are you going to let me get back to work?"

"You listen to me Agent Gibbs. This is my investigation remember? We have more important things to be doing then sitting here wasting our time with a suspect that's not talking."

"Then why don't you do those things Detective Taylor and I'll sit here and waste my own time with this suspect." Mac was furious and it was starting to show. He was beginning to realize how much he didn't like this N.C.I.S Agent and that was putting it lightly. Restraining himself Mac replied.

"Fine. I'll let you deal with him all you want but if, and I really mean IF, he decided to open his mouth you call me immediately understand?"

"Sure thing Detective." Gibbs pointed to the door. "I'm sure Abby would be more than happy to help you with any evidence you've got."

"I'm sure.." With that, Mac turned around and stormed out of the room.

"Mac!" Danny yelled bolting out of the other room behind the mirror. "What was that all about?"

"Nothing." Mac replied harsher then he meant.

"Nothing? I half expected you two to be at each other's throats before you left. There something goin on between you two that we don't know about?"

"No I'm just having a hard time with his attitude is all. Look Danny, as soon as... Agent Gibbs is done in there." Mac pointed a little frustrated at the interrogation room. "Give me a call and let me know how it went."

"Yeah sure thing Boss. But uh... Where are you going?"

"Back to the lab. I'm going to retrace our steps with the evidence we've got, see if there isn't anything we've missed."

"Alright sounds good." Danny nodded and turned to head back to Tony and Gibbs. "I'll call you if Mr. Freeze starts talking." Mac nodded and headed for the doors hoping he could find something with what little evidence remained at the lab.

"Everything ok with him?" Tony asked as Danny walked back into the room.

"Yeah he's fine. Think he's getting a little frustrated with Agent Gibbs is all." Danny replied.

"Well, they are pretty similar in personality..."

"No kiddin..." Both the officers looked back to the room silently watching Gibbs and the suspect hoping that the suspect would crack soon, and not just for the sake of the case.

"You know, it'll only be a matter of time before we catch him..." Gibbs commented taking another sip of his coffee. The man in the other chair kept his silent facade never once showing any emotion to the agent. "You'll make this a whole lot easier on yourself if you give it up."

"I have nothing to say to you." The man finally spoke. Gibbs looked at him a little bemused.

"You've got nothing to say me? Well that's fine. I'll let you sit here for another hour and a half to think about that while I step outside to speak with my colleagues." Gibbs replied as he stood up and walked out of the room, Tony and Danny not far behind from the other.

"Well I give. We've had him here for a while and that's all he's got to say? I'm beginning to think we're never gonna get anywhere with this guy..." Danny thought aloud looking at the man in the chair.

"Well he said something, that's a start." Gibbs replied.

"Should I call Detective Taylor Boss?" Tony asked reaching for his phone.

"Nope." Tony stopped when Gibbs replied.

"No...? Why not? Didn't he..?"

"I'm aware of what the detective wanted me to do DiNozzo."

"Well, no disrespect Agent Gibbs but Mac's gonna wanna know how it went." Danny retorted folding his arms across his chest. "He asked me to call him when you were finished."

"Then call him." Gibbs said. Danny gave him an odd look and unfolded his arms before replying.

"Now?"

"When I'm done." Gibbs grabbed the file folder Tony had been holding onto the whole time and walked back into the room with the suspect. Danny and Tony both looked at each other not quite sure how to react. Tony was used to Gibbs, Danny on the other hand wasn't.

"That normal for him?" Danny more stated then asked.

"Definitely... You'll get used to it Danny..." Tony walked back into the other room behind the mirror for another round with Gibbs and the suspect, Danny not far behind him.

**12:36pm – New York City Crime Lab**

"Huhh..." Mac sighed and pulled away from the microscope rubbing his eyes. He'd just about exhausted the evidence he had and was beginning to lose his patience with it all.

"Still nothing?" Abby asked from the other side of the room already certain of the response the detective would give her. Mac looked over his shoulder at her and shook his head.

"No, nothing." He sat up straight and looked over the computer screen to his right, grabbing the mouse and occasionally clicking on various things. "You'd think with all this evidence that we'd be able to find SOME trace that the killer may have missed..."

"Well he's thorough I'll give him that. But I'm almost positive he'll slip at some point." When Mac didn't reply Abby set down her tools, strolled across the lab and leaned against the desk beside him. "Starting to lose hope that you'll catch him?"

"No I wouldn't say I'm losing hope. Just running out of options..." Mac pushed away from the table when he heard his phone ringing. "I just hope your boss can crack my suspect. Excuse me." He said as he answered his phone. Abby nodded and stepped back a moment. "Taylor." Mac answered.

"Mac! You gotta get down to the precinct." It was Danny. He sounded a little excited judging by the tone of his voice which said to Mac one of a few things. Something went wrong with the interrogation, Don found a break with his research or Gibbs got the suspect to talk. Mac was hoping for the later of the options and was pretty much convinced when he heard Don in the background commenting on how 'unbelievable' this was.

"Alright I'm on my way." Mac hung up and pulled the latex gloves off his hands sticking them in the pocket of his coat.

"Something happen?" Abby asked.

"I'm just guessing here but from the sounds of things it looks like your boss came through." Mac replied getting up from his seat.

"That's great news!" Abby replied with a smile, very gently punching Mac in the arm. "And you were worried Gibbs couldn't do it." Mac gave her an odd look but smiled with a bit of a laugh as he walked off to his car. "I'll keep processing what's here and call you if I find anything!"

**1:07pm – New York Police Department 13th Precinct**

"What happened?" Mac asked as he walked into the precinct. Don turned around to face his colleague with a look of disbelief on his face.

"I can't believe I'm sayin this Mac but..." Don looked to Danny then back at Mac. "Mr. Freeze in there? He's talkin." Mac raised an eyebrow a little shocked himself.

"Really...?" He replied.

"Yeah. That Gibbs is a really tough case I tell yea. He's waitin for you right now." Don pointed to the interrogation room. "We told him you were on your way."

"Thanks Don." Mac gently pushed passed him and Danny and walked off into the room with Gibbs and the suspect.

"Glad you could join us Detective. I was just having a little chat with our friend here." Gibbs pointed to the man a little smug.

"What's he said so far?" Mac asked ignoring Gibbs obvious jab.

"Not much, just that he wasn't saying anymore." Mac gave Gibbs a light glare. "But at least it's a start. He seems quite interested in our vics though."

"You showed him the photos?"

"Not all of them, but yea." Gibbs handed the folder he had taken from Tony to Mac when he approached the table. Mac carefully flipped through the photos pausing on one of Katie Lakehill, the sister of the apparent suspect.

"Why's this in here?"

"Just wanted to see his reaction Detective..."

"Did you show it to him already?"

"Nope. Thought I'd leave that honour to you." Mac gently shook his head and pulled out the photos of Mark Quinlan, Matthew Lakehill and James Schwepper, laying them on the table in front of the suspect.

"I've already seen this one." The man pointed to the picture of James. Mac raised an eyebrow a little bemused himself.

"Do you know who this man is?" He asked. The man shook his head silently so Mac pushed the picture a little closer. He couldn't help but notice the man sit back in his chair in an effort to get away from the picture. "You sure you don't know him?"

"Yeah I'm sure..."

"Your demeanour tells me you do." Mac pulled the picture back and replaced it with the picture of Katie. Now the man seemed very interested in what he was being shown. He pulled the picture closer to himself and studied it like a cat would a moth. "You seem to know her to." The man didn't respond at all. He was completely absorbed in the picture of the young girl.

"There something you want to tell us about her?" Gibbs intersected. The man just looked at the officers before leaning back and setting the picture back down on the table.

"She dead to?" The man finally asked.

"That's for me to know."

"That's not up for discussion." Mac interrupted. "Do you know her or not?" Mac gave the suspect a steely look making the man shift in his seat.

"Yes I know Mrs. Lakehill. Well, I know OF her. I've never met her."

"How do you know of her?"

"She's the topic of conversation sometimes."

"Conversation with who, Kevin?"

"Kevin?" The man gave Mac a falsely confused look. "I don't think I know a Kevin." Mac was at his wits end and he'd had enough of this man and his games. First his silent games and now this? He slammed the file on the table and looked the suspect square in the eye.

"Enough!" Mac smacked the picture of the masked killer from the Quinlan murder on the table in front of him. "Tell me what you know about him." The man leaned forward and studied the picture before looking at Mac and Gibbs and asking.

"What's his name?"

"Shouldn't you be telling me that...?" The man tilted his head frustrating Mac even more. Mac leaned back on his feet and crossed his arms. "Are you going to tell me what you know about Mr. Lakehill or not...?" Now the man's eyes lit up a little.

"You mean Mekanik?"

"Mechanic?" Mac and Gibbs looked to each other both a little confused now.

"No no, Mekanik. It's not English so say it right, MEKANIK." Mac sighed tilting his head.

"Who is Mekanik?"

"Mr. Lakehill is Mekanik. No one calls him Mr. Lakehill anymore."

"So Kevin prefers you to call him Mekanik?" The man looked disappointed now, like Mac was missing something.

"Mekanik prefers being called Mekanik..."

"Ok enough of that." Gibbs leaned forward and picked up Katie Lakehills picture, holding it up in front of the man's face. "Why is Katie Lakehill the subject of conversation among your group?"

"She's a problem." The man replied. "She doesn't agree with what we're doing and she's trying to turn everyone against Mekanik." He leaned forward on the table, resting his forearms on the cold steel with an almost heartless cold look in his eyes. "So if she is dead, I say good riddance..."


	10. Part 9

_Three weeks._

In three weeks time I will deliver a body to your doors unless you can solve the puzzle you see before you. Think fast, think hard and leave no piece unturned. Sleep with one eye open, keep your head over your shoulders and your gun loaded. You never know where I may be when the shadows lurk.

Save your next victim Detectives...

Mekanik

"That's pretty straight to the point..." Don said sarcastically as Mac set the letter down on the table.

"It sounds like a threat to me..." Jo commented. "We should be taking extra precautions when on our own from now on. This isn't the first time we've received something threatening the lives of one of the staff here since taking the case."

"Not to mention we still don't know who this Mekanik character is. It could be serious for all we know." Lindsay added.

"Well whatever this guy is up to we gotta catch him before he can kill anyone else." Danny grumbled, arms folded firmly across his chest. "Any word from Dr. Mallard and Sid?"

"No not yet. They're still doing a cross examination with a few of the older victims." Sheldon replied.

"Still? Why is it taking them so long, what was there to be cross examined exactly?" Tim asked sitting up straight in his chair.

"Ducky said there was something amiss with the latest victims." It was Tony who responded this time. "Mentioned something about an inconsistency in the wounds or something like that, I dunno..."

"What about this puzzle he mentioned?" Gibbs more stated than asked, changing the subject. "We haven't received anything like that at all, not in a package with the discs or on the victims. We should be trying to figure out what he meant by that first." Gibbs's mention of the puzzle in the letter brought an eerie silence to the group of officers. They all looked from one to the other unsure of what to think or say. Mac looked over the letter again and sighed.

"Gibbs is right. Until we know what games this Mekanik character is playing now we need to examine every possibility, this 'puzzle' included. Go through all the packages they've sent us and review any new evidence we've accumulated with the last three victims. If you find anything you're to call both myself and Agent Gibbs." As if on cue the group stood up and filed out of the room with the exception of Gibbs and Mac.

"I'm right?" Gibbs asked Mac trying to understand the Detectives change in attitude towards him and his team. Mac sighed again not wanting to get into a debate with the agent but replied anyway.

"Yes. The puzzle he mentioned is a concern, of that there's no doubt. It's not the first time he's mentioned it and it probably won't be the last until we figure it out."

"How many other letters is a puzzle mentioned?" Gibbs replied.

"In total? At least three others, maybe more." Mac said leaning forward resting his forearms on the table all the while holding the letter in his hands.

"And there were no prints on any of them?"

"None. As usual he's very clean and particular about what condition these things he sends us are in. Although his pattern is changing there are still a number of things that remain the same. We find the victim bled out from the neck missing one bone from various parts of the body depending on the victim. Then the discs show up, usually with 'Play Me' written in the victims' blood on the cover anywhere from a couple of hours to three days after the victim is found. If he's seen on camera whether on the discs or through security footage he's wearing a mask made of different parts of the human skull which we now know are real and most likely from previous victims we haven't found yet." Mac paused and looked at the note again. "Now he's added the letters..."

"Then we can only assume Detective." Gibbs started, holding his hand out motioning to Mac for the letter. Mac gently slid it across the table to him and Gibbs looked it over before continuing. "That the puzzles will be his next change."

"I just hope we're ready for it, whatever IT is..." Just then gun shots rang out in the building echoing through the halls. Mac and Gibbs both looked at each other with concerned wide eyes making sure the other was hearing the same thing. When they were both absolutely sure they got up from the table, Mac quickly grabbing the letter and tucking it in his pocket, and bolted out the door towards the sound of the gun fire. "What's going on, what happened?" He asked when he saw Jo and Tony ducking behind a corner. Jo turned to face him, her gun already drawn and held firmly between her hands.

"Seems our new friend doesn't like the way we're conducting our investigation." She replied.

"The suspect?" Mac asked. Tony nodded in return.

"The man letting off the shots was pushing a mail cart towards your office. Next thing you know he's blowing holes in the walls ranting and raving about that Mekanik person..." Said Tony. Gibbs leaned closer to the small group and slowly peered around the corner to try and catch a glimpse of the shooter.

"I don't see him now. Do we know who the shooter is?" He asked.

"It's Mr. Freeze." Tony replied. Gibbs looked at him and shook his head.

"You mean Milo Thomas DiNozzo?" He retorted. DiNozzo nodded quickly in return and took back to canvassing the area for Mr. Thomas.

It had taken them a while to get it out of him, but with Gibbs there to aid them they finally got the name and current address out of their lead on the Skeleton Killer case. His name was Milo Thomas, a 26 year old male living in the East Bronx with his Grandmother and two sisters until August of 2009 when he was evicted and moved to Queens, presumably to be closer to JFK International Airport. He had told Agent Gibbs he was expecting a lot of company over the next few months and needed more room for his honoured guests. Mekanik's name had been one of the many on his list.

As luck would have it though, they had no way of keeping him detained. He had done nothing wrong beyond hitting Mac with the door when he ran and there was no evidence to say otherwise. So against their better judgment when he'd done his time for assaulting him with the door, Milo Thomas was a free man. But now he was here in the crime lab shooting up a storm like a lunatic demanding to speak with Detective Taylor and Agent Gibbs.

"What does he want?" Gibbs asked.

"He wants to speak with you and Detective Taylor..." Gibbs looked to Mac who nodded in response and the two men stood up and carefully stepped out into the open.

"Milo?" Mac held his hands in the air as he cautiously walked towards his office. "Milo Thomas?"

"Throw the guns down!" The voice came from behind the overturned couch in Mac's office.

"Alright." Mac and Gibbs both set their guns down and gently kicked them off to the side. "We're unarmed Milo. Don't shoot, we're coming in." Slowly the men inched towards the open glass door.

"Stop!" Milo yelled halting their advance. "That's close enough."

"Milo." Gibbs called. "We understand you came here to talk to us?"

"I can hear you just fine from over there..." Milo reputed quickly, poking his head out from behind the couch. His short dark brown hair was a mess and his eyes were blood shot like he hadn't slept since his release a month ago. Gibbs and Mac looked to each other, hands still poised in the air, before either of them spoke again.

"So?" Gibbs asked.

"So what?" Milo growled.

"Talk to us Milo. What'd you want to talk to us about?"

"You ruined my life!" Milo shouted. In his momentary rage Mac was able to see the weapon he was holding in his hands when he leaned out in their line of view. When Milo retreated behind his shield he leaned in towards Gibbs and spoke.

"He's got a Colt. 9mm SMG by the looks of it..." He whispered. Gibbs nodded in affirmation.

"Good eyes Detective..." He whispered in response, then turned his attention back to Milo. "Explain that to us Milo. How did we ruin your life?"

"Everything! It's ALL over! Mekanik is furious! He cast me out like rat!" He growled and stood up pointing the gun at them. "It's all because of YOU! Because you had me in prison! And for what? Because I hit you with a door?"

"Just calm down Milo." Mac held his hands out in an effort to keep him from firing. "Assaulting an officer is a crime regardless of whether or not it was done with your hands or an object." Mac replied. "But that's not what you came to say to us is it?" When Milo didn't respond Mac continued. "Tell me why you came here Milo, tell me what you came here to say to us."

"Detective." Gibbs called. Mac looked back briefly but kept his focus on the submachine gun aimed at them both.

"Tell us what you came here to say." He continued.

"You just don't understand Detective Taylor..." Milo muttered and lowered the gun a little.

"Detective!" Gibbs called again trying to get Mac's attention. Again Mac looked back briefly but turned his attention back to Milo.

"Then help me understand Milo, explain it to me so I can understand." He retorted. Milo raised the gun again and Mac braced himself for a shot. There was a moment of confusion when he lowered the gun and stood up straight shaking his head, hot salty tears streaming down his face.

"It's too late. It's too late..." He wept.

"Too late for what Milo? Talk to me!" Mac's eyes darted between Milo and the Colt in his hands trying to figure out a way to get the gun from him but before he could even think of moving Milo threw the gun down.

"It's too late for that Detective..." He sighed, and pulled out a pistol. Mac backed up a step as Milo turned the new gun over in his hands. "I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." He looked up at Mac, a look of utter defeat and self loathing plastered on his face. "Look in the cart Detective. There's a gift in there for you..." Milo looked down to the gun he held and looked up one last time to say one last thing. "Oh, and Mekanik says hello and to tell you," He paused. "You should just... Open the box." The moment the word 'box' left his mouth, the gun was in it and the trigger was pulled.

"Milo NO!" Mac shouted, but he was too late. The shot screeched through the crime lab and the blood and brain matter painted the glass behind him. Milo Thomas was dead.

Both Mac and Gibbs stood there motionless looking at the mess. There was at least five minutes of silence before either of them spoke again.

"Are you out of your mind Detective?" Gibbs snapped. Mac turned around to face him a little put off.

"What do you mean?"

" Don't you think that was a little dangerous?"

"I was doing my job Agent Gibbs."

"The man had a Colt pointed at our heads Detective and neither of us are wearing vests."

"I know that, but it didn't look like he was about to shoot us."

"So you thought approaching him like that, unarmed and unprotected was the best option? You could have been killed."

"Like I said Agent. He wasn't about to shoot us. He didn't have it in him. Assault with a door perhaps, but not murder. He wasn't capable of it..." Mac and Gibbs stood there staring each other down before Gibbs side stepped him and approached the body.

"You should check the cart Detective. He obviously wanted you to see something." Mac didn't bother saying anything this time. Instead he pulled out a pair of latex gloves from his coat pocket and picked around in the cart until he found a large white box with the usual black print on it he'd seen on all the packages sent here so far. "So?" Mac almost jumped when Gibbs spoke again. "What's the verdict?"

"Seems like the packages are getting bigger..." Mac motioned to the box in his hands. "Same handwriting as the envelopes, same request as before, 'To be delivered to the desk of Detective Mac Taylor'..." Mac tilted the box to look at it from all angles. "There doesn't appear to be anything to be overly concerned about at a first glance but we'll have to wait and see what's inside it first."

"Then let's get to work, shall we Detective?" Gibbs motioned with his hand to Tony and McGee. "You two know what to do here right?" He more stated then asked looking to Milo Thomas's corpse.

"On it Boss." DiNozzo replied and immediately got to work with his colleague.

"Danny, Hawkes." Mac nodded his head towards the scene and Danny darted off returning moments later with his and Sheldon's kits. "Now we can get to work."

**1:46pm – New York Crime Lab, Evidence Examination**

"What did you find Adam?" Mac asked the moment he and Agent Gibbs came in the room.

"Well, we've got our puzzle. Or puzzles." Adam chuckled to himself, stopping immediately when he realized Mac wasn't amused and cleared his throat. "Uh, we've. That is, Abby and I have separated the contents of the box you received from Milo Thomas into six different puzzles. Uh, they look like the make pictures of some sort, but of course they would they're puzzles and all... Puzzles make pictures so..." Adam rambled.

"Adam." Mac growled.

"Right. Anyway uhh, Abby and I are working on piecing them all together but we thought you might want to take a look at what was with them."

"And that would be?" Gibbs asked a little annoyed. Adam pointed with both hands to the letter Abby held in her hands.

"Seems like he's left a new letter for you Mac." Abby said handing Mac the letter. Mac slipped on a pair of gloves and took the note carefully. "I dusted it for prints but as usual, nothing."

"Yeah well that's not surprising." Mac said studying the note. Almost instinctively now Mac read it aloud. "Detective, as you can see there are many pieces of me. Be quick be nimble and you might find Agent Kimble. Be slow be wary and you might find yourself in something hairy..." Mac and Gibbs both exchanged odd looks trying to figure it out. It wasn't until Adam spoke again that their gazes shifted elsewhere.

"Oh, I get it! Uh!" Adam did a little dance of triumph to himself stopping when he saw the look on Mac and Gibbs faces.

"Care to share Adam?" Mac demanded.

"Oh well umm..." Adam pointed to the note. "It's a rhyme. Be quick be nimble and you might find Agent Kimble. Be slow be wary and you might find yourself in something hairy..." Adam paused and looked to Mac again. He saw the look on his face hadn't changed so he continued with his explanation. "Something hairy you know like, a 'hairy situation'? Be slow be wary and you might find yourself in a hairy situation?" To alleviate Adam of the spotlight Abby drew Mac's attention to herself.

"Adam and I also found this." She turned around and leaned over a computer, clicking on a few things before striking the enter button and pulling up an image on the large screen.

"What is it Abbs?" Gibbs asked walking up behind her, Mac not far behind.

"It's a picture of someone but I'm not sure who yet. It's so pixalated and blurry that it's just... UGH!" Abby threw her hands in the air frustrated. "You just can't see a thing and it's taking forever to clean it up an..." Abby went on.

"Abbs..." Gibbs said firmly. Abby stopped and looked at Gibbs for a moment.

"I'm sorry Gibbs. I ran out of Caf-Pow and I'm going out of my MIND trying to focus here without my music..." She replied.

"You didn't bring it?"

"I didn't think it would be appropriate..." Gibbs studied her for a moment before picking up his phone and punching away at the numbers.

"Ziva. Do me a favour will yea? I need you to drive back to Washington and grab Abby's music and some more Caf-Pow. Great, see you in a few hours then." Gibbs hung up, never once taking his eyes off Abby.

"You didn't have to do that Gibbs, I was coping." She replied to his gaze.

"I need you focused Abbs. Clean up this picture and call us when you do."

"This is important Abby, that picture may tell us who our next victim is if you can clean it up enough for us to see it..." Mac added pointing the screen. Abby nodded in return taking a deep breath to relax herself.

"OK, I'm on it Mac." She immediately turned around and started playing around with the photo again. Satisfied with her work Mac turned back to Adam who just happened to be standing there with his hands on his hips watching Abby work away.

"Adam..?" Mac sighed. Adam turned his head to face Mac waiting for his instruction. Mac merely nodded his head towards the puzzles on the lighted table shifting Adam's focus to his work.

"The puzzles, right. I'm on it Boss." Adam turned to the pieces splayed out on the table and studied them intently. "I'll call you when I'm done." With both Adam and Abby working away Mac and Gibbs returned to the scene of Milo Thomas's death.

**2:23pm – New York Crime Lab**

Jo sat at the computer anxiously waiting for the printer to spit out the DNA reports on the last two victims. The latest three had been John and Jane Doe's since they found them. They had no ID with them and there were no hits at first when running their DNA. A week after finding the last of the three a hit turned up for the first of them when someone filed a missing persons report. That had been a nightmare for the team. The woman came in to possibly identify one or more of the bodies and found her son there in the morgue. He was missing his pelvic bone and most of his legs and stomach. Jo was so lost in her thoughts that she almost missed her phone ringing in her pocket. Carefully she pulled it out and answered it.

"Danville."

"Ahh Detective Danville. It's Ducky Mallard from down in autopsy. Do you have a moment?" He asked. Jo smiled.

"For you Ducky I have several. What do you need?"

"I thought you might like to be the first to know that both Dr. Hammerback and myself believe there are two killers out there." Jo was taken aback by Ducky's words.

"What do you mean two killers?"

"Well, Sid and I were examining the wounds on our latest string of victims and comparing them to those on Mark Quinlan, Matthew Lakehill and our poor Mr. Schwepper and there was something odd about them." Ducky paused giving Jo a moment to catch up. "The wounds on the first three were made by someone who uses their right hand predominantly were as the cuts on the last three were done by someone who is left handed."

"So either our killer is ambidextrous or we have a team of them out there..." Jo replied solemnly.

"My fears exactly my dear. I fear we are dealing with far more than what we bargained for originally..." Jo was about to respond when the printer spat out the paper she had been waiting for.

"Hold that though Ducky." She said as she reached for the paper. Sure enough there was a hit for both and two profiles pulled up on her screen. "Oh..."

"What's oh?" Ducky asked curiously.

"I think our killer just went national..." Jo replied. "Ducky I'm gonna have to call you back."

"Of course. Good luck Jo." Ducky said and hung up. Jo placed her phone down on the table and looked at the screen once more before looking up a few numbers and dialing them, the ring tone buzzing in her ear. Mac had said if need be, contact who needed to be contacted to catch this guy so she hoped this would fall into that category.

"Mac's not going to like this..."


	11. Part 10

"I see." His voice was calm and his eyes never left the file in his hand as he listened quietly to the voice on the other end of the line. "Yes I have a few that are missing; one matches your John Doe's description. I also have a number of unsolved cases fitting your killers MO. How many? I'd have to say at this moment there are at least six. Seven counting the one in your jurisdiction." He paused again listening intently to what the other was saying. "That's fine. I appreciate the call Detective Danville, I'll take it from here. You can expect to see me, very soon." With that he hung up and looked over the file once more before setting it down on his desk, the hot sun blaring down on his back from the window.

"So what was all that about?" The other man in the room asked curiously.

"That, was Detective Jo Danville from the NYPD. Seems she's found one of our missing kids." The other at the desk replied.

"In New York?"

"It would appear so." The man at the desk sat up straight. "And it would appear, he was murdered in a similar fashion to the victims that have been popping up here in Miami as of late..." The man stood up from his desk.

"What are you going to do H?" The other asked already sure of his response.

"We Eric. What are WE going to do..." He replied pausing as a tall blond stepped into his office with a grin.

"I like where this is going already." She smiled. "Where we headed Horatio?"

"We're going to New York City."

**6:35pm – Las Vegas Nevada, LVPD Crime Lab**

"We certainly do. Yes Ma'am I've got a missing girl by the name of Stacy Fiorin that matches your Jane Doe's photo." The man leaned forward and clicked through the other attachments in the email. "Whoa really? Miami to eh? Yeah we sure do. About five of them so far, six including yours. Sure thing, I'll let Catherine know and we'll be there as soon as we can. Thanks for the call Detective." He hung up and sat back in his seat feeling a little defeated.

"Bad news Nick?" A familiar voice called from the doorway. Nick Stokes turned his head to see Catherine Willows standing there, file in hand.

"Yeah. Seems our girl Stacy Fiorin has turned up dead in New York City. Just got off the phone with Detective Jo Danville from the crime lab there." Nick stopped and looked back to the picture haunting his computer screen. "What kills me is how she was killed though. It's like our guy has a double, or triple for that matter."

"Triple even? That's pretty strategic." Catherine commented walking into the room. "Why'd she call you and not DB?"

"Must have forgotten to update the numbers somewhere." Nick chuckled. "Speaking of DB, what should we tell him?" Before Catherine could speak another answered from the doorway.

"Nothing." Both Nick and Catherine turned to face DB Russell standing in the entrance. "You two are packing and leaving to check this out."

"When?" Catherine asked.

"Now."

**6:58pm – New York Crime Lab, Mac's Office**

"Ok, hey, HEY. Slow down I can't understand a word you're saying. Katie. KATIE." Mac dragged his hand down his face. He'd been on the phone for almost an hour now with Katie Lakehill on the other end completely hysterical. He sighed heavily trying to discern what the young girl was saying but her words we so jumbled together the most he could understand was 'Blood' and 'I'm in danger'. "Katie I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened. Are you hurt?"

"No." She finally said.

"OK. That's good, but can you tell me why you're so upset? What happened Katie?" Mac asked holding his finger up to Jo and Gibbs as they stepped into the room.

"It was Kevin." She sobbed. "He was here. There was so much blood on him; I thought for sure he was going to kill me..."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"No but he left a box in the doorway... It has your name on it Detective Taylor."

"OK, Katie don't touch it alright? I'm on my way just stay where you are." Once Katie confirmed she wouldn't touch the box and would stay put until he arrived Mac hung up and grabbed his coat. "What do you need?" He asked quickly looking to Jo and Gibbs.

"Where're you headed Detective?" Gibbs asked.

"Kevin Lakehill was just at Katie's home. He left a box there with my name on it so I'm heading over there to get her and the box." Mac replied then looked to Jo.

"Mac, I found out who the last two victims are..." She said and Mac ceased his motions.

"Who are they?" He asked

"One is a missing boy from Miami, his name's David Terry." Jo replied.

"The other is a missing girl from Las Vegas by the name of Stacy Fiorin."Gibbs added. Mac looked at them both waiting for either of them to continue as he finished putting his coat on.

"I called MDPD and LVPD. Both have five or more cases just like the ones we've got here where the victim was bled out from the neck and a bone was taken from the body." Jo stated gently placing the spine of a file folder in her other hand. "Lieutenant Horatio Cane and two of his colleagues are on their way to New York from Miami right now. Likewise CSI's Catherine Willows and Nick Stokes are on their way from Vegas, I just got off the phone with their superior DB Russell. They should be here soon." Jo finished and looked at Mac as he holstered his gun.

"What time can I be expecting a call from you about their arrivals then?" Mac asked trying to hide his annoyance.

"As soon as they get here you'll be the first know." Jo replied.

"Good. Keep me posted." Mac left Gibbs and Jo in the hall and practically ran up to his Chevy Avalanche and tore out of the rooftop parking lot. He quickly and carefully tried to put on his Kevlar vest with one hand as he sped down the street to Katie Lakehill's residence. Once there he peeled to a stop and fixed the Velcro on his vest before going in, gun poised and ready. "Katie? It Detective Taylor." He called out as he cautiously walked through the house. He had to be careful now. He didn't know if Kevin was still in the house or not but if he was one wrong move could cost him a lot more than just this investigation.

As he made his way down the hall, swerving his hands this way in that as he passed open doors and pushed open others he made a conscious effort to note all the closets and tight spaces a person might be able to hide in or around in case he needed to for safety's sake. Finally Mac stumbled upon the brown paper wrapped box sitting in the doorway of what appeared to be Katie's room with his name plastered all over it in red ink which would mostly likely turn out to be blood if what Katie said was true and Kevin was covered in it.

Carefully Mac stepped over the box and entered the room slowly surveying the area.

"Katie?" He called again. He heard a light tap in the closet so he slowly and carefully stepped towards it, gun ready in case he needed to shoot. Slowly Mac's hand found its way to the doorknob and turned it as quietly and calmly as he could. This was it, the moment of truth. Mac swallowed hard and pulled the door open backing up and placing both hands on his gun again. Nothing. Carefully he pushed some of the clothes hanging on the bar out of the way. Doing so revealed a smaller door within the closet so Mac leaned down sideways and carefully opened it, stopping halfway to pull out his penlight. He slowly pulled the light up to his gun and turned it on.

The sight of the body inside startled Mac at first and he fell back on his hands and pushed away briefly before he realized who it was. "Katie?" He asked again. Katie crawled out of the small space and Mac sighed with relief. She was OK, he'd gotten here in time. She still had tears streaming down her face and he pulled her close to try and comfort her. The box would have to wait for a moment.

**7:34pm – New York Crime Lab**

"Argh! ALMOST had it." Abby howled over her music occasionally taking a large gulp of the Caf-Pow Ziva brought her.

"Are you alright Abby?" Ziva asked from the lighted table Adam had the puzzles spread out on. Abby didn't look up when she replied.

"I'm OK. It's just this picture, UGH. It's very annoying BUT! I'm getting there. Soon we'll know who Mekanik's next victim is." Abby said with a triumphant smile.

"Wicked. I'm just about down with these last two puzzles. So far it's just the six victims we've found so there's nothing new there..." Said Adam in a less enthusiastic tone as he placed the last few pieces in their places.

"Don't give up Adam. We'll find the big break." Abby replied trying to cheer him up. Adam laughed.

"You think so?"

"I know so!"

"Let us hope you are right then Abby." Ziva commented

**7:36pm – Lakehill Residence**

Mac gently peeled away at the brown paper covering the white box. He had to be careful not to rip it too much so he could test the blood that his name had been written in on the front of it. Carefully he popped open the top of the box and peered inside. At a first glance it looked like a bunch of black fabric all balled up and stuffed in a bag. On top lay a note. _'Another riddle...'_ Mac growled to himself.

"W-what is it Detective Taylor?" Katie asked from the far end of her room. She was trying to keep as much distance between the box and her as possible. Mac turned around to face her as he spoke.

"I'm not sure yet. I'll have to go through it in more detail at my lab but-..." Mac was cut short by a loud bang echoing up the stairs.

"That sounds like it came from the cellar..." Katie muttered. Mac held his hand up and drew his gun again.

"Stay here." He told her.

"No, I can't stay up here by myself!" She half yelled in a whisper. Mac sighed.

"Then stay behind me." Mac made his way down the hall and quietly descended the staircase, Katie not far behind him. Another knock drew Mac's attention to a white door in the kitchen area. Cautiously he approached it and opened the door. The rancid smell that wafted up from below was nauseating and he tried to turn on the light to see what the cause was.

"The light hasn't worked down there for years. Kevin wouldn't let anyone replace it." Katie told him and Mac nodded.

"Stay up here." He coughed in response and slowly entered the cellar. Mac pulled out his penlight again and poised his gun as he came into the open room. "What the hell...?" Was all he could muster when he saw what was down there. Above his head just out of view from the stairs was a chandelier made of bones.

Human bones.

Mac was disgusted but he made himself examine it anyways, for the sake of the case and finding out where the killer was. The candle holders were made up of six skulls each with the bottom jaw removed and a hole in the top where a white candle stood. The remainder was covered in old wax that gave it an eerie feel in the flickering candlelight. The rest was, from what Mac could see in the orange glow, cast out of various tibia and ribs leading up to the ceiling wear it was bolted into the wooden frame.

_'Who could stomach doing something like this...?'_ He thought to himself and he pulled out his phone to take a picture of it.

"Did you find anything Detective Taylor?" Katie called down quietly from her perch on the first step. Mac peered around the corner at her.

"Yeah I did. Just stay up there alright? I don't want you coming down here Katie." He said in a low tone. Katie nodded and whispered in return.

"What is it?" Mac shook his head then asked.

"Have you seen what's down here at all?"

"No, Daddy wouldn't let me down here and after what I saw Kevin doing to the animals he killed I didn't want to go down there, ever." She squeaked. Mac nodded.

"Good." Mac walked back around the corner and took a few more pictures of the chandelier before moving on. As he continued through the area he found a number of other oddities made up of various human bones. A chair comprised of ribs, spines and tibia with, what he assumed to be, the missing jaws from the skulls on the chandelier for the headrest and arms. Aside from the chair he found an incomplete torch made up of tibia and a hollowed out skull, a nightstand and various other things he couldn't name.

Mac was about to leave when a breeze caught his attention and he turned his head to see another room to his right. Long strands of plastic billowed in the cold air crawling through the small opening and it started to make him feel uneasy. He quickly emailed the photos he took to Adam and dialled his number when he saw the confirmation that his message had been sent on the screen. He held his gun out in front of him and proceeded into the next room.

"Adam? It's Mac."

"Boss! So funny that you called cause I was just about to call you!" Adam replied.

"Adam listen to me. I need you to make sure you show Agent Gibbs the photos I just emailed you." Mac ordered. "Also, make sure to let him know that I found what looks like a bloody blazer in a bag in the box that was left here for me with another note on it. I'll be brining it in with Katie when I'm done here."

"Alright I'll let him know. What'd the note say?" Adam inquired as he opened his email.

"Just some nonsense." Mac replied. "It said 'Mac be nimble, Mac be quick, Mac don't got passed the candle stick'."

"A nursery rhyme?"

"Yeah. Did you get the email yet?" Mac asked a little frustrated with the small talk Adam was trying to make.

"Yeah I got that email, just waiting for the photos to OH my GOD. What the hell is THAT? Are those REAL?" Adam stammered as the first of the photos loaded.

"Yes Adam they're real, they're VERY real now PLEASE make sure Gibbs sees those, it's important!" Mac growled. "Adam?"

"Yeah Boss I got it don't worry. I'll make sure Gibbs sees them. Oh man this is NASTY. Where'd you find all these?"

"I'm in Katie Lakehill's basement. These things were more than likely left over from brother."

"Are you serious? Whoa..." Adam paused to look at the other photos, then remembered why he'd wanted to call Mac in the first place. "Oh the reason I was going to call you was because Abby is almost done with the photo!" Mac could here Abby in the background shouting over a lot of loud noises he assumed was music.

"Adam what the hell is that sound?" He asked annoyed trying to focus on what was in front of him as he turned into a maze of book cases.

"Oh sorry Boss, it's Abby's music." As the noise died Adam continued. "Anyways yeah we're almost done with it. We'll know who Mekanik's next victim is soon enough."

"That's great Adam." Mac replied peering around another bookcase into a dead end of others. "How much longer do you think it'll take?"

"Gimme a couple of seconds and I'll let you know."Adam sounded pretty happy about it. Mac couldn't share in the moment though as a rustling of books almost made him drop his phone and grab his gun with both hands.

"Adam?" He said a little louder than he meant to.

"Hang on Boss, it's loading!" Adam was silent again and Mac was starting to grow frustrated with him. He needed to get off the phone and fast. Finally he heard Adam again but his voice took on an apprehensive and worried tone versus the happy one that had been there moments ago. "Oh, my God." Mac could hear Abby echoing his words in the background noise. "Boss you gotta get outta there." Adam continued.

"What do you mean?" Mac asked.

"You gotta get outta there now Boss. Like, now!" Adam sounded panicked now.

"ADAM?" Mac howled. "Who is the picture of?" Mac could hear the hesitation in his voice as he swallowed hard.

"It's YOU Boss. You're the next victim!" Adam's words made Mac's heart stop. He stopped and turned around ready to bolt but he asked him again to confirm he had heard right.

"What?"

"Mekanik's next victim is YOU Mac, you gotta get outta there now! The phone call from Katie? It was trap to lure you to Katie's house! The killer WANTED you there!" Before Mac could do anything something hard hit him in the back of the head and the next thing he knew he was on the floor. The last things he could remember were Katie's screams from the other room, Adam's voice calling out from his phone and the skeletal blue eyed face that faded with his vision as a small sharp needle punctured his neck.

"Boss?... Mac!... **MAC?**"


	12. Part 11

"I need all available units to the Lakehill residence stat! We have a possible abduction of an officer and a young teenage girl in progress!" Flack howled over the CB in his car. As soon as he'd got the call from Adam he had him send the coordinates to his GPS and raced down the streets of New York, sirens blaring in his ears. "Come on COME ON!" He smacked the steering wheel in front of him as a silver minivan slowly peeled away to the side opening the road for him. By the time he got to the house he could see a few dozen police cruisers there with more piling in as he pulled up behind Mac's black chevy.

"Hey Flack!" One of his colleagues called him over as he stepped out of his car. "We canvassed the place but found nothing. Haven't checked inside yet, figured we'd wait till you got here and secured the perimeter in the meantime."

"Good. Just make sure you keep this area in lockdown. No one gets in or out with me knowing about it alright?" Flack ordered. The officer nodded and Flack quickly jogged to the door, a team of officers in hot pursuit. He stood to the side of the front door and slammed his fist against it. "NYPD, open up!" He waited for a moment in silence and when he heard nothing he brought in the battering-ram.

One swift movement from the thick black ram and the door was open. The officers flowed in and scoped the place out shouting "Clear!" each time they checked an area to its fullest.

"Mac! Katie Lakehill!" Don hollered. "It's Detective Flack with the NYPD!" A noise from one of the upstairs bedrooms silenced Don and he carefully stalked his way to the staircase and up into the upstairs hall. He followed the noise until he came across the box Mac had opened and peered into a young teenage girls room. "Katie Lakehill?" He shouted again. Slowly he came into the room and surveyed the scene. Everything seemed to be in order, with the exception of the closet door which was open a crack. "Katie?" He called as he carefully opened the door, pushing the clothes around when he found nothing. After pushing around in the closet he looked down just in time to see the smaller inner door pull shut tightly. "Hey, NYPD open the door!" He aimed his firearm at the door.

"How do I know you're a cop?" A small terrified voice called from the other side. Flack took a step back and tilted his head.

"Katie Lakehill?" He asked professionally.

"Yes...?" She replied. Flack relaxed and held his hand up signalling to the other officers in the room that the situation was under control.

"Katie, it's Detective Flack here. Can you come out please and tell me what happened?" Flack put his gun away as the little door opened and Katie's tiny frame crawled out from within it. He helped her to her feet and noticed a bit of blood and dirt covering her from head to toe. "What happened Katie, where's Detective Taylor?"

"It all happened so fast I..." She started, hot tears stinging her face as she looked to the door and saw two others enter the room.

"What's going on here?" It was Agent Gibbs, Danny Messer not far behind him.

"I don't know yet, I just found Katie hiding in her closet." Flack replied. Gibbs nodded and took Katie's hand.

"I'll deal with her; you keep looking for Detective Taylor." He ordered. Reluctantly Flack nodded his head in agreement and stepped out to continue searching the house. Gibbs had Katie sit down on her bed and knelt down on the floor in front of her. "Kaite, I know you're scared right now but I need you to try and tell me what happened to you and Detective Taylor." Gibbs waited for Katie's acknowledgment before he continued. "What happened after Detective Taylor arrived?"

"He opened the box and was about to go through it before he heard something coming from downstairs." Katie's reply was distraught in tone and Gibbs did what he could to try and keep her calm.

"What happened when he went downstairs? Did you hear anything at all?" He asked.

"Yeah I heard it to and I went with him downstairs and waited for him on the stairs while he went into the cellar." Katie said.

"He went into the cellar?"

"Yeah but... He never came back out..." The thought of what had happened sent Katie into a hysterical fit of tears again.

"OK, OK." Gibbs sat beside her on the bed and wrapped his arms around her comforting the young girl.

"Hey Boss." It was Tony this time. "You need to see what's in the basement..." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. Gibbs nodded and looked at Katie who seemed to be calming down now.

"Katie, I have to go with my colleague here to see if we can't find out what happened to the Detective. I want you to go with Detective Messer here and wait outside OK?" Gibbs instructed, pointing to Lindsay as she came into the room. Katie nodded in return and stood up and left with her, Gibbs leaving and heading into the basement with Tony joined by Danny, Flack and Jo.

"I've got Adam on speakerphone." Jo said as she held up her phone for everyone to see.

"Thanks Detective." Gibbs said glancing back at her. "Adam, can you tell me what it was that Mac was doing down here when he called you?"

"He was making sure I got an email he sent me containing pictures of the objects he found in the basement." Adam's pixalated voice said from the other end of Jo's phone. "He wanted me to make sure you saw them Agent Gibbs but..."

"But you lost contact with him before you could." Gibbs finished for him. "Did he say anything else?"

"No not really. He sounded like he was in a rush though. I'm guessing he must've found something else after he sent the email to me. Whatever it was though he didn't mention it." Adam finished.

"He probably didn't have time to when whatever happened to him happened..." Danny commented looking at the bone throne.

"You remember when I called this guy a nut job?" Don commented from under his arm, a look of utter disgust plastered on his face as he looked up to the chandelier on the ceiling. "I take that back, this guys a freaking psychopath. A real sicko..." He looked away and placed his hands on his hips looking almost upset by this now. "I'll never look at a candle the same way again after all this."

"Why not Flack?" Danny asked just to poke fun.

"Are you seriously asking me this Mess?" When Danny merely grinned at Don he continued. "Because every time I go to light one now or look at one sitting on a shelf somewhere I'm gonna have visions of this chandelier with the candles sticking outta the skulls like that!" Don pointed up at the skulls hanging over his head. Danny just laughed at his colleagues' discomfort.

"Yeah, now just imagine how long that things been down here Don. Probably a LOT of spiders hangin around here man... Above your head even." Danny mused with a grin, laughing to himself when Don ducked and moved over batting at his hair with his hand.

"That's not even funny Mess..." Flack groaned when he realized Danny was kidding. He could even hear Adam on the other end of Jo's phone getting a kick out of this.

"Gentlemen..." Don and Danny turned their heads when Gibbs spoke. "Whenever you're ready to get back to work, we have a crime scene to process..."

"And a missing detective to find..." A man's voice came from the stairs. Jo, Danny, Tony, Don and Gibbs all turned to face the ginger haired officer standing on the second last step of the basement stairs holding a pair of sunglasses and glancing around the room. "Or so I've been informed by your colleague Detective Messer outside."

"And you are?" Gibbs was quick to question him. "This is an active crime scene."

"I'm aware." The man came down the stairs and approached Agent Gibbs, hooking his sunglasses onto his shirt. "Lieutenant Horatio Caine, Miami Dade. I received a phone call from Detective Danville."

"That's right; you said you were coming down here." Jo approached extending a hand. "I'm Detective Jo Danville and this is Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS. Thank you for coming Lt. Caine."

"My pleasure Detective. So..." Horatio shifted his weight standing sideways and quietly glancing towards the plastic blowing in the doorway hiding around the corner. "Can you give me an idea of what's happened so far?"

"Well, Detective Taylor received and distress call from one Katie Lakehill, that's the girl outside with Detective Lindsay Messer with whom you spoke, and came to investigate." Tony started. "Detective gets here, finds the box, hears a noise from the basement, goes to investigate and finds all... THIS." Tony pointed to the bones all around the room. "Emails the photos to Adam Ross back at the lab. Then I assume he checked out the far room hidden over here and that's when he disappeared. We're assuming he disappeared in the far room since we've found no trace of a struggle in here..." When he finished speaking Tony looked to Horatio. He almost couldn't tell if he was listening or not considering he was looking intently at the floor. "Lt. Caine?"

"And no one has heard from Detective Taylor since Mr. Ross lost contact with him?" Horatio finally answered.

"No, no one has seen or heard from Mac since 7:30, 8:00pm when he emailed me the pictures of the objects in the basement and called me to make sure I got them." Adam responded over Jo's phone this time. Horatio nodded then looked to the plastic covered doorway again.

"Thank you Mr. Ross." He said as he slowly approached the hidden room. "Tell me, has anyone checked this room out yet?"

"Not yet, we just started our investigation." Don was quick to reply this time. Horatio turned around to face Don as two other officers came down the stairs holding their CSI kits, Miami Dade flashing clearly on their badges.

"Then you won't mind if my team and I, give you a hand..."

**10:45pm – Unknown location, Mac awakens**

Mould, damp wood and humid air stung at his nostrils. As he tried to move his fingers he felt something slimy clinging to him that almost made him vomit between the texture and smells looming around him. Did he dare look around to find the cause of the smell and the rancid slime that clung to him?

Slowly Mac opened his eyes and glanced briefly at the dark ceiling before the throbbing and stinging in the back of his head made him retreat behind the darkness of his eyelids again. He groaned with the effort to move as he tried to roll onto his side to ease his pain but found he couldn't. Confused he slowly opened his eyes again and looked down at his body. Everything seemed normal, his arms and legs were still attached and he obviously still had his head, but as his vision began to clear a knot of dread began to tangle in his guts.

Mac shot up as much as his restraints could let him and glanced over his body taking note of every little detail. There gluing him in place were thick leather straps pinning him against the cold slimy metal beneath him. One stretched across his chest, another across his waist and legs and two more coiled around his wrists like a boa constricting its pray. He instinctively pulled at the straps around his wrists, twisted his body to try and free his legs and attempted to stretch out the straps on his chest and waist to loosen them but all to no avail.

With a sigh Mac lay back down on the metal and began to survey his surroundings. The walls were old and stained with black mould and the air was moist and thick with the smell of the black fungus clinging to the otherwise bare walls. To his right was an old white laundry sink with raggedy old torn dishrags draped over the edge of it and a large old stove just to the left of that with a large pot of boiling water sitting upon it.

Mac cringed at the thought of what it was all for considering what his last case had shown him. Wishing to shift his thoughts elsewhere Mac turned his head to his left. There he noticed a grand wooden cabinet with dirty glass panels and doors glommed to the wall. Below it was a similar metal table to the one Mac was lying on but instead of a person there were numerous odd sharp instruments strewn about the top of it, some of which were rather dirty with an old rust colour caked on them. Mac knew exactly what most of them were none the less though.

Medical instruments, now probably meant for the purpose of torture.

Mac swallowed hard when he saw a pocket knife that could match the wounds left on the victims lying on cold slabs back at the morgue, but it was the other thing next to it that practically made him swallow his tongue when he saw it. There lying next to the blade was a bone saw. A Gigli saw. The same saw Sid had said was most likely used to remove the bones from the victims. As his eyes lingered on the wire saw Mac could feel the knot of dread in his body growing more intense, the adrenaline starting to rush through his veins.

Just at that moment a mechanical clank at the door directly in front of him drew his attention to the door beyond his feet. He could see the window from the top was missing and through it came a ceiling mounted camera, the red blinking light telling him it was either recording or streaming his image somewhere as it slowly canvassed the length of his body and finally paused on his face. He stared at it in shock before it started to make him uncomfortable and he tried to shift his position to get away from the watchful lens. Of course, the leather straps binding him to the table only let him do as much as turn his head and glance at it sideways occasionally.

Mac lay like this for what felt like hours to him. He couldn't quite tell how long it had been staring down at him albeit, he couldn't see his watch. The camera had not moved since it crawled across the ceiling into the room and Mac had made a point of not looking into the lens anymore unless it made some mechanical clink or clank that made him hope it was retreating each time.

Finally another more human noise echoed from the hall beyond the door and he looked to the figures pushing open the wooden plank to the best of his abilities trying to get a glimpse of who they were and what he should be expecting. All he could see where black cloaks shuffling about as he looked at each of the figures shifting around him. That is, until he saw two skeletal faces enter the room. One he recognized immediately from the Lakehill residence when he was attacked in the basement, the blue eyes where what gave it away. The other he guessed was the one from the videos being sent to his office. Mac gathered this was the case since he had the same eyes as the man from the surveillance tape in the hotel from Mark Quinlan's murder.

"How're you feeling this fine night Detective Taylor?" The blue eyed skeletal face asked with amusement. Mac didn't respond at all. He was still trying to absorb the situation he was in even though he knew he was in danger. "Oh come on Detective. You can't of gone mute on me already, we haven't even started yet!"

"Who are you..?" Mac finally asked looking at the man from his peripheral vision. The man's eyes smiled at the sound of Mac's voice.

"We'll get to that Detective..." The man responded. "First, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine." The blue eyed man held out an arm and ushered the other skeletal faced man over to his side. "Mac." He said in a sing song tone. "Meet Kevin."

"Kevin Lakehill?" Mac asked in response.

"Oh so you've heard of him?" The man replied.

"Heard of him yes. From his sister, Katie." Mac shot back. The blue eyed man looked up to the far wall on Mac's right recalling something as he spoke.

"Yes dear little Catlin. She was supposed to be here with you but..." The man paused and looked back down at Mac on the table. "Well, let's just say she's quite an escape artist. She really knows how to hide to." He laughed.

"It'll only be a matter of time before we catch her Detective Taylor." Kevin cut in. Just by the sound of his voice Mac could tell this was indeed Katie Lakehill's brother. But if THIS was Kevin Lakehill, who were all the others? More importantly, who was the other man in the skeleton mask? "Trust me when I say when we do, I'll take great care in how I cut her so as to be sure she fits in all the packages..." Kevin leaned down against the table and looked Mac square in the eye as he said this.

"You would do that? Kill your own sister?" Mac asked bitterly.

"I killed my father. I killed my uncle. The only thing left standing in my way is Catlin..." Kevin hissed, the teeth of his mask clanking together as he spoke with a chattering clack.

"And..." The blue eyed man began. "After her, there's only one other is standing in our way."

"What's that...?" Mac asked. He knew the answer but he also knew better in these situations. It was safer to humour them then piss them off and risk accelerating their plans. The blue eyed man's eyes smiled again.

"You Detective. You, your team, Gibbs and anyone else you have helping you are the only other thing standing in our way." He replied.

"That's a lot of important people you're threatening..." Mac warned. He was careful to take note of the fact that this man seemed to know Agent Gibbs though.

"I'm aware of that Detective, I don't need you to warn me or try and stave me off my path." He leaned against the table on his hands and looked Mac in the eyes, his masked face mere inches from his. "These people need to be punished." He said. "They need to understand what I'm trying to say."

"And what is it that you're trying to say..." Mac humoured him again. Now the man stood up straight again and a look of disappointment crossed his eyes.

"You didn't get a chance to watch my video did you?" He asked in a similar disappointed tone.

"What video?" Mac asked in return.

"The video in the box. You didn't get a chance to watch it before Kevin here nabbed you in the cellar?" The man asked again. Mac shook his head before replying.

"No, I didn't have a chance to do much of anything." Mac growled. The man hung his head with a sigh and backed away from the table. Mac felt an eerie silence come over him as he walked back and forth beside him.

"Have you found Agent Kimble yet Detective Taylor?" The man asked changing the subject. Mac looked around the room before looking back to him. "I take it that, judging by the look on your face, you haven't found him yet..." The man turned his head and looked to Mac over his shoulder. Mac gently shook his head and the man nodded in return. "That's good... But I assume you probably haven't been looking very hard for him have you?"

"My team and I have put the same amount of effort into finding Agent Kimble as we have with finding our victims and our suspects." Mac spat back.

"Have you now...?" He asked obviously not buying what Mac said. "Then tell me why you only found ONE of your suspects Detective. Tell me why you haven't found ME yet." The man shot back. Mac squinted his eyes in thought for a moment before he started to realize what was going on.

"... You're Agent Tyler Kimble..." Mac shifted his body to look at the man as he turned around completely and took off his mask to reveal the dirty blond hair that accompanied his ocean blue eyes.

"Yes. FINALLY Detective! You're starting to figure it out." Agent Tyler clapped his hands and strode around the table laughing.

"I don't understand." Mac started but was cut off by Agent Tyler.

"What is there left to understand Detective?" He howled with a laugh. "You figured it all out, you found the killers." Ty stopped and stood up straight again. "You HAVE figured it all out now, haven't you Mac?"

"I might have a few ideas." Mac muttered. "You're either in on this against your will, or you work for Mekanik..."

"I work for Mekanik? Ha ha ha ha!" Agent Tyler laughed and looked to the mask in his hands. "I, Agent Tyler Kimble, work for Mekanik..." He stopped laughing and just stood there, head cocked to the side and a wide grin on his face. "No Detective. I don't WORK for Mekanik..." Ty growled growing frustrated. Mac tilted his head a little confused trying to figure the whole thing out.

"Then what's the point in all this Tyler. Why kill all these innocent people? Why kidnap and threaten an officer of the law?" Mac questioned. He could see that Tyler was becoming increasingly more frustrated with him so he had to be careful from this point on.

"You just don't GET IT!" He shouted harshly. "DO YOU, Detective...?"

"Then help me understand Tyler, explain this to me!" Mac pleaded as Tyler began pacing the room with a scowl on his face.

"Do you know who I am Detective?" He asked striking Mac with a tad more confusion. "I mean who I REALLY am..?"

"Gibbs's missing agent, Tyler Kimble...?" Mac said with slight hesitation. "Unless there's something else I'm missing that you want to tell me about..."

"Agent yes. But my name isn't Tyler KIMBLE. That name is a fake." Tyler replied.

"Then what is it...?" Mac asked in return. Tyler sighed with a smile and crossed his hands in front of him.

"My real name?" He started. "It's Tyler Lakehill..." The smile never left Tyler's face as he spoke. "I'm Matthew Lakehill and James Schwepper's brother..."

"What...?" Mac started but was cut off by Tyler's laughter. He could feel the familiar rush of adrenaline and the knot of dread come back and wash over him like the ocean waves against the shores with each breath he took. "How can that be? There was no mention of you from anyone who knew the family, not even Katie mentioned you."

"Of course they didn't tell you Detective, of COURSE Catlin didn't tell you about me. She doesn't even know." Tyler paused placing an arm on Kevin's shoulder. "Kevin here is the only one who knew anything about me" He took a deep breath, sat down on the table next to Mac's head and started to explain. " You see Detective Taylor, I was adopted by Matthew and James's parents before they were born. Their mother had been trying to conceive with no luck for many years and so to ease her pain, she adopted me."

"Where are you going with this Tyler?" Mac asked when Tyler looked to him.

"Now now hang on, I'm not finished." He hushed Mac. "I was everything their mother wanted. Everything except hers. So when she finally DID conceive, TWICE in fact, I was no longer what she wanted. What she NEEDED..."

"So what happened once they were born?" Asked Mac trying to keep him talking. This was as close to solving the case he had been since the first package showed up on his desk and Mac wasn't about to let this opportunity slip him by, no matter how grim his circumstance may have been.

"Well, at first it wasn't so bad. Her attention was divided yes, and their father wasn't exactly thrilled to have three of us running around either so when she started to become abusive he suggested sending me back to the orphanage where she got me, but..." Tyler paused briefly and sat up straight placing his hands on his knee. "I never thought they were serious until the day their divorce was finalized." The men were silent while Agent Kimble looked off to the far wall recalling his childhood. "You know what it can do to a child when your parents get divorced but neither of them wants you? That's all you can hear them fighting about is who will take Tyler when all this is said and done?" Tyler growled and shifted his weight before looking back down at Mac. "They decided to split the boys up because neither of them wanted to lose their favourite son. Matthew went with Mr. Lakehill and James left with his mother for Washington and took his mother's maiden name instead of his fathers."

"And what happened to you Tyler?" Mac inquired.

"What happened to me? Why, I went back to the orphanage of course. And then by the time my birthday rolled around I was out on the streets." Tyler spat back bitterly.

"So that's what this is about? Revenge?" Mac shot back.

"Revenge has been served already Detective. I'm just picking up where I left off before Matthew kicked me out..." Tyler got off the table and walked over to the other on Mac's left.

"You were in contact with Matthew?" Mac asked watching Tyler hands carefully as he waved them over all the tools on the table.

"Oh I was in contact with both of them Detective. They were my brothers; I wanted to see if they even understood what happened and why I went away. When I found out they didn't even know a thing about what really happened I tried to explain it to them but..." Tyler stopped again and picked up a scalpel. "By that time James didn't even remember me and Matthew was concerned about the kind of influence I would have on his children." Tyler turned around twirling the scalpel in his hands. "Which I guess is reasonable considering what I used to do as a child, but it doesn't excuse the way he threw me out. Telling me I was going to corrupt his family."

"When my uncle came by the first time, my father didn't know what to do." Kevin cut in. "He said he didn't want him giving Katie and I the wrong idea about things, teaching us about his 'warped sense of entitlement and superiority' as he so boldly put it." He hissed. "But what my father didn't understand was that my uncle was trying to show us something great. Something far bigger than ourselves. He was showing me the difference between the meek, and the truly superior."

"By killing people and taking parts of their bodies with him as souvenirs? Kevin, that's not being superior to others, that's psychotic. It's evil and it's wrong and you're father was trying to get you to see that. He was trying to protect you!" Mac explained.

"You don't know what you're saying Detective Taylor. You don't know ANYTHING about my uncle OR his work!" Kevin scoffed back.

"Kevin listen to me, there's still time for you to put an end to this. You don't have to follow your uncles or Mekanik's orders, you can save yourself AND your sister!" Mac pleaded.

"ENOUGH!" Tyler snapped holding the scalpel in his hand against Mac's neck. "You have NO idea who you're screwing with here Detective! I have men EVERYWHERE! Miami, Vegas, Chicago. Even cults in Canada worship me as their leader!"

"Leader?" Mac was stunned, but then it hit him. Tyler Kimble, or Lakehill as he now learned wasn't working for this Mekanik character. It was like what Milo Thomas had said in the interrogation room to him and Gibbs, nobody calls him 'Mr. Lakehill' anymore, and if it wasn't Kevin he was referring to then that left only one other man with the last name Lakehill that was still alive. Catching that Mac had finally figured it out for real Tyler let loose his fury with a wild howl.

"I AM MEKANIK!"


	13. Part 12

"_Good evening Detectives. Agents. I'm sure by this time you've already been joined by Lieutenant Caine and his team from Miami and the officers from Las Vegas will be joining you... Any second now."_ The skull faced man on the screen hung his head briefly before looking back up at the camera again.

_"If you're watching this now, I'm sure you have realised that one of your colleagues have been missing for exactly... 13 hours."_ The man paused again. _"This may also mean the Detective never had a chance to watch this himself and is completely unaware of the fate about to befall both himself... And his team members."_ Again he paused as the camera zoomed out to show all the cloaked figures around him and the second skeletal faced man at his side.

_"By this time you have been informed of a figure by the name of Mekanik from the late Milo Thomas who regrettably took his own life in the New York crime lab. You know you're looking for a young man by the name of Kevin Lakehill; the older brother to one Catlin Lakehill, and you have found the bodies of one Matthew Lakehill, James Schwepper, Mark Quinlan as well as a Mrs. Stacy Fiorin in Las Vegas, David Terry in Miami and you will soon uncover the body of one Catherine Hay; a housekeeper from the Ramada Bronx Hotel where Mr. Quinlan was purged."_

"Did he just say, PURGED?" Nick Stokes asked when the man on the screen paused yet again. The blue eyed man in the skeleton mask was mentally unstable of that he was sure without a doubt. But what scared Nick a little was his knowledge of the cases and everyone's estimated arrival. There was definitely something up with him, but what?

"Wonder what he meant by it..." Eric Delko commented as he watched the screen with his arms crossed, a disgusted look plastered on his face.

"It could have something to do with the beliefs of the cult." Catherine Willows commented shaking her head.

"I think he's about to tell us." Calleigh Duquesne added to the conversation. Just then the man on the screen lifted his head and spoke again.

_"By now Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs may have discussed with his team the possibility of James Schwepper's escort, Agent Tyler Kimble, meeting his unfortunate end at the hands of your suspect unbeknownst to the detectives of New York, Miami and Las Vegas."_

"Oh. He's good." DiNozzo mused. "Wonder how he knew that."

"If you're quiet you may actually find out DiNozzo." Gibbs quipped.

"Shutting up Boss." Tony said turning his head back to the screen just as the man stood.

_"Agent Gibbs."_ He said in a much louder tone of voice making Gibbs stand taller in response to the address. _"I know by now you should find my voice familiar and, perhaps you may have even put a face to my voice but please, allow me the honour of introducing myself to you and your colleagues."_ The man slowly brought his hands to the mask and gingerly peeled it from his face revealing the man beneath it.

"Oh my God..." Abby gasped. "That's Tyler!" And as if on cue, the man on the screen spoke again.

_"I am Special Agent, Tyler Lee Kimble. Or at least I WAS when working under the command of YOU Jethro."_ Another pause as he drew in his breath. "_"My real name, is Tyler Douglas Lakehill. Some may have known me better as Mr. Lakehill but... Most, simply call me Mekanik these days."_

"Guess we know who's responsible for all the murders..." Lindsay muttered a little disheartened.

_"I am what the media has, amusingly so if I may say, dubbed your Skeleton Killer. I along with my loyal followers and my beloved nephew Kevin have been purging North America of the weak and feeble genetics that pollute the most superior of our species on the planet."_ Tyler went quiet as the other men and women around him chanted.

_"The strong survive, the weak are meat. These bones are our trophies; now let us feast."_

_" You'll have to forgive them."_ Tyler commented on his followers. _" Some of my... More DEVOTED followers, have turned to stealing the strength of others by means of consumption."_ He laughed to himself and looked to the mask in his hands. _"But what they say is true. In this world, only the strong can survive. The rest must be swept from the gene pool to prevent the creation of such useless, selfish creatures..."_ Again Tyler paused, or did he hesitate to finish this time? Either way when his eyes returned to the screen he was furious; to furious to even speak this time. So the other man took over.

_"Mekanik has shown us a great a path; something some of the more unfortunate of our species can't seem to grasp. Your DETECTIVE, Mr. Taylor, is one such unfortunate case."_ Kevin began to urge Tyler to continue and with a loud sigh, he did.

_"Detective McKenna Boyd Taylor Jr., or Mac as he seems to prefer, is a vastly superior being to most I have seen."_ Tyler looked off screen lost in thought briefly before continuing. _"It is unfortunate that he is incapable of seeing the need for purging these meek things crawling in our shadows. Therefore it is with my deepest sympathies that I regret to inform you of his... Inevitable demise."_ That made the New York crew's hearts race and they all exchanged worried looks with one another. _"Detective Taylor still lives as of the present moment fear not, but it won't be long now. Sooner or later he will die, as will the rest of you should you continue your persistent and fruitless pursuit of me. Mac Taylor and any other men or women of."_ Tyler raised his hands for some dramatic air quotations. _"JUSTICE, will be purged from society. Your influence is not needed here."_

_"In three weeks time we will begin a mass purging that will signal the beginning of a new era; one where only those worthy of passing on their blood may breed."_ Kevin stated, the teeth of his mask clicking together with the movement of his jaw.

_"The first, will be the Detective we have detained here in our abode. Slowly, day by day, he will bleed out until his body withers away to nothing."_ Tyler paused yet again as he strode towards the camera until it focused on him and him alone. _"If you're meant to stop this Detectives, you'll find me. But try not to dally to long. If the officers of today are anything like they were when my unfortunate parents were alive and well then you're already too late..."_ With that, the screen went blue with nothing but white text in the center.

The officers were in shock.

"So... Guess that means we've got exactly three weeks from today to find Detective Taylor." Said Nick breaking the solemn silence.

"What's with the jumble of letters and numbers on the screen?" Adam asked as he walked up to the big screen on the wall.

"Maybe it's a code?" Don said shrugging his shoulders.

"I don't think so." Sheldon argued. "There's something about it that makes me think Tyler is trying to tell us something for sure but I don't think this is a code."

"It could be a condensed version of something else." Jo added to the conversation.

"Oh, I got it!" Abby shouted excitedly. "It's a shortened URL! He's trying to link us to something."

"Careful Abbs, could be a virus." Gibbs warned her as he watched Abby type the code on the screen into the computer.

"If we're lucky maybe this'll tell us where Catherine Hay's body is." Tim commented as Abby switched the feed on the big screen to the loading link on the computer.

"Let's hope we're that lucky Agent." Horatio said quietly as the screen went black. Everyone waited in quiet anticipation as the black screen occasionally flickered into a blurry image.

"Come on, come on." Adam muttered, nervously chewing on his thumb nail. Just then, almost as if in response to Adam's words the screen came into focus leaving the officers even more speechless than before.

"That is Detective Taylor." Ziva stated as she approached the screen. There on the wall was a live feed of Mac lying on the cold slimy slab in the currently unknown location of Mekanik's hideout. His head was turned to his left to avoid looking at the camera and he had a considerably large gash on the right side of his chest that tore a large hole in both his crimson coloured dress shirt and black undershirt.

"Oh God, you don't think this is another one of the videos he's been sending Mac do you?" Lindsay looked to Danny quite disturbed.

"Nah, he's not stupid Linds." Danny replied trying to reassure her. "Besides that he said he was alive. This is probably just a little something he threw together to prove he was tellin us the truth."

"I think it's a little more than that Detective." Horatio stepped towards the screen and pointed to the lower right hand corner. "This isn't a recording, it's a live feed. He wants us to watch the detective suffer."

"For real?" Adam gaped looking between Lt. Caine and his boss on the screen.

"You sure about that Lieutenant?" Gibbs questioned. Horatio turned around to face Agent Gibbs before responding.

"I'm positive." He said.

"I think he's right Agent Gibbs. Look at Mac's watch." Jo intervened as she pointed to Mac's wrist watch prompting everyone to compare his to their own.

"You were right H, it's live." Eric grumbled when he noted Mac's watch was in sync with his own.

"Tyler said three weeks, right?" Sheldon said looking to everyone in the room.

"We all heard that Doc." Gibbs retorted.

"Then starting as of 13 hours ago, we have exactly three weeks to find out where this feed is coming from to save this Mac's life and stop Tyler before he and his followers can kill anyone else."Sheldon finished. Everyone hesitated and looked back and forth between the walls and the image of Mac streaming on the big screen.

"I'll start trying to trace the signal of the feed. Adam, I could probably use your help with this one..." Said Abby as she turned back to one of the computers in the room, Adam joining her a moment later. "Let's try not letting this take the full three weeks."

**Mekanik's Hideout – 13 Hours missing**

Mac couldn't bring himself to look at the camera any longer. He'd refused to move ever since he'd found out who was behind the killings in the Skeleton Killer case and realised he'd failed to look into the best lead he'd had under his nose the whole time. Why did it never occur to him that N.C.I.S.'s missing Agent was the one responsible? Was he losing his edge? No. He wasn't losing his edge, this was all Tyler.

Tyler was a very smart man, and smart men don't get caught easily.

Mulling over Tyler's words Mac shifted his weight as best he could and turned his head to his right now to try and relieve the cramping in his neck, sighing heavily as he very briefly made eye contact with the lens lurking above him. What the hell did Tyler need this camera looming over him for anyway? He'd have to ask him next he saw him.

"Good evening Detective."

_'Speak of the devil.'_

"Giving yourself up yet Tyler?" Mac grumbled in response. His words made the Agent laugh.

"Oh you'd love that wouldn't you Mac...?" Tyler more stated than asked. He folded his hands in front of him and smiled down at the officer strapped to the table. "I admire your fire Detective Taylor. Shame it has to go out..." At first Mac refused to turn his head to look at him but slowly decided he would when he asked about the camera.

"Why the camera Tyler? Do you plan on reliving it all when I'm dead?"

"Oh no no! Not at all Detective." Tyler's smile grew and he leaned over Mac and waved to the looming lens. "It's not for me, it's for your friends back home. They're watching you right now."

"My team can see this?" Mac asked with a growing curiosity.

"MmmHmm, they certainly can." Tyler turned Mac's head the camera and pressed his cheek to his with a snicker. "Smile pretty for the camera Mac. It might be the last time they'll ever get to see it."

"You're going to let them all watch as you torture me to death?" Mac scoffed. "Tyler do you even SEE the hole you're digging yourself into right now? I'm an officer of the law."

"Yes yes and there are consequences to be had I KNOW." Tyler growled. "Believe me if I were worried about anything I'd be worried about Gibbs. He's a seasoned military sergeant."

"So am I." Mac furrowed his brow and glared angrily at the Agent. Tyler was taken aback by his statement a little.

"So you were a sergeant as well?" Tyler nodded to himself. "That explains the fire in your eyes."

"Guess you don't know me as well as you thought you did Tyler..."

"Au contraire Mac. I believe I know exactly what I needed to know at this stage." Tyler slowly turned to leave the room. "Now it's what I want to know that counts."

Mac was starting to think he needed to keep his mouth shut around him, for his own sake...


End file.
